A former priest who raped and sexually assaulted his sisters while he was a seminarian has been jailed for eight years.
Richard Brennan, aged 64, who is originally from Rathfarnham but has been working in the United States, pleaded guilty during his trial to raping and indecently assaulting his sister Paula Fay when she was between 15 and 17 years old.
He also pleaded guilty to raping and indecently assaulting Catherine Wrightstone when she was between nine and 13 years old and he admitted indecently assaulting a third sister, Yvonne Crist, when she was 20 and he was 18.
He changed his plea to guilty after all three of the sisters had given evidence at the Central Criminal Court and two of them had been cross-examined.
The sisters have waived their right to anonymity to allow Brennan to be named.
An older brother, 67-year-old Bernard Brennan, was jailed last month for four and a half years for the sexual abuse of Ms Crist and Ms Fay.
The court heard that Brennan told Ms Fay when she was 14 or 15 years old that she would be doing him a favour by having sex with him as he would not be able to have sex with any girl because he was going to be a priest.
He was around three years older than Ms Fay when the abuse started and around ten years older than Ms Wrightstone.
He subsequently left the priesthood in the early 1990s after meeting his future wife in the US.
Mr Justice David Keane said the aggravating factors were that Ms Fay and Ms Wrightstone were particularly young and vulnerable when the offences took place.
He said the offences against them were part of a pattern of frequent assaults by Richard Brennan over a lengthy period of time.
The judge said the offences took place in their family home which should have been a place of safety and security but instead was a place of fear, anxiety and confusion caused by the actions of Brennan.
He said it was an abuse of trust and each of the three sisters had been psychologically damaged by the offences.
Judge Keane said that even though some of the offences occurred when Brennan was himself under 18, the majority took place when he was an adult and was also asserting "the moral probity and maturity of a seminarian".
He said in mitigation he took into account Brennan's change of plea, a letter he had written indicating remorse, his cooperation with gardaí and the fact that he had no other convictions.
He said he also took into account the fact that he was 64 years old and answering for his criminal conduct "at substantial remove" from when it occurred.
The judge imposed a global sentence of nine years and suspended the final year.
Sisters disappointed with sentence imposed
Mr Justice Keane praised the sisters' courage and impressive strength of character.
He said he had immense admiration for all three of them and the determination they had shown in dealing with the psychological harm inflicted on them and in engaging and persevering with the legal process.
He said he hoped they would draw further strength from Brennan’s belated acceptance of guilt.
In powerful victim impact statements read to the court last month, Ms Fay said she felt incapable, inferior and invisible, "a child with no voice, power and no sense of worth".
She said the psychological impact of her brother’s "relentless and enduring" abuse had been profound and the aftermath had followed her through her life.
Catherine Wrightstone said she had broken her silence when she was 12 years old, after the abuse began when she was nine, but she said the system failed her and her parents failed her as they chose to believe her brother over her.
She said she had internalised blame for the abuse and attempted to take her own life in her early 20s.
She said she lived with the trauma every single day.
Yvonne Crist, who gave evidence via video link from the US, outlined a history of mental illness and an eating disorder and said she had been retraumatised by the trial.
Outside court, Ms Fay said they were extremely disappointed with the sentence imposed and did not feel it was long enough to reflect the severity of Brennan’s crimes.
She said she felt the sentence did not send the right message to offenders of this type of crime.
However, she said it was still a monumental day in that their brother was being held accountable for the sexual abuse imposed against each of them.
She said no prison sentence was every long enough for rape or sexual abuse.
She said eight years would give Richard time to reflect on the real impact of his horrific crimes and the effect it had throughout their lives.
But she said they felt justice had not been truly served.
Ms Fay said that knowing the perpetrator was going to serve a "mere eight years" inhibited their healing process.
She said it was painful to know they would never reclaim their childhood.
But she said they had now reclaimed their voices and had finally been heard.
She urged other survivors of sexual abuse to come forward.
Ms Wrightstone said Brennan could no longer hide behind the mantle of the church "masking menace with meekness and depravity with sanctity".
She said the sisters had chosen to waive their right to anonymity not for publicity but so other survivors would know they were not alone.
She said justice may take decades but was never beyond reach.
And she said the justice system was capable of pursuing justice for victims even decades later.
Ms Wrightstone said the Ireland of 2025 was not the same as the Ireland of the 1970s and 1980s but she said the widespread systemic issue of violence including sexual violence against women still needed to be addressed and was not something of the past.
