Galway Bay fm newsroom - A former Parish Priest of Renmore has been sentenced for the sexual assault of a 12-year-old boy in a parochial house in Galway city.
Tom Brady has been sentenced to two years in prison, with the final six months suspended
The 66-year-old Westport native, with an address at 26 Cloonarkin Drive, Oranmore also served as a chaplain at GMIT and Renmore Army Barracks
Last November, Tom Brady pleaded guilty at Galway Circuit Criminal Court to a single count of sexually assaulting the boy at a Parochial House in Galway City on a date unknown between July 23, 1994 and May 17, 1995.
At today’s sentence hearing, Detective Marie Connelly gave evidence Mr Brady was 38 years old at time of the offence.
She said he brought boy into the front room of the Parochial House where he initially abused him and then a couch in the sitting room
The court heard the victim decided to go to the Gardai in March 2016, after seeing a television programme about the Jimmy Saville case in England, where a woman said that such abuse was never the child’s fault.
He told Gardaí he had confronted Brady about the abuse when he was 17 or 18, telling him he would go to the Gardaí, but Brady shouted and roared at him at the time.
Brady denied the allegation made by the victim following his arrest, admitting only to inappropriate hugging and touching.
In his victim impact statement to the court, the victim said he had often thought of committing suicide but the love of his family kept him from doing so.
He said Brady had robbed him of his childhood and he now suffered from depression and the constant fear of being identified.
Judge Brian O’Callaghan said the level of depravity involved was frightening and the venue in which it took place was brazen.
He said the reaction of Brady to his victim when he approached him five years later looking for help, only aggravated the gravity of his offending behaviour.
He sentenced Tom Brady to two years in prison, with the final six months suspended for two years, due to his entering a guilty plea and letter of apology.
He noted the accused had been already automatically placed on the Sex Offenders Register.
