Former priest Tony Walsh faces a mere two more years in prison for the heinous crimes he committed.
Walsh, now 62, committed the offences and two other rapes on the same victim prior to the Criminal Law Amendment Act came into effect. The Amendment means the maximum penalty a judge can hand down for each offence is two years.
According to The Irish Times, Walsh forced the child to have sex twice, one in the house in his parish and once in a tunnel in the Phoenix Park. Documents show he used a crucifix to rape the boy.
Walsh has protested his innocence and claims he didn’t even know the boy. He pleaded not guilty at the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to five accounts of assault on the boy, who was between the ages of 10 and 13 during the period of abuse.
Prosecuting Garda Tara Corrigan told the court that Walsh has 17 previous convictions during a ten year time period from 1995 to 2015. Walsh pleaded guilty to those offences during two trials and is currently serving a sentence, not due to cease until 2021.
During these previous trials, Walsh admitted that he was an active abuser between the years of 1980 and 1986. Many of his victims reported the crimes and the Archbishop sent Walsh for treatment in the UK for six months. On his return, Walsh was appointed as a Hospital Chaplain.
In 2010 the Murphy report was released by a High Court ruling. The report included the following quote from the Psychiatrist who treated Tony Walsh in Stroud in the UK in 1988.
“Tony Walsh is extremely compulsive – there have been an awful lot of children involved. He is a very disturbed man. He is always going to be dangerous. He could not be let near schools, children, Confession without a grille…”
The report further stated that:
‘“Fr Tony Walsh is probably the most notorious child sexual abuser to have come to the attention of the Commission… His pattern of behaviour is such that it is likely that he has abused hundreds of children.”
Walsh was known as the singing priest due to his Elvis impersonations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iljhq0WdHpo
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