Defrocked priest jailed for 'sustained' sexual abuse of young victim

Former priest Eamonn Crossan has been jailed for the sexual abuse of a young boy in County Donegal.

Defrocked cleric Crossan, now aged 73, was handed a five-year prison sentence, with the final 12 months suspended, when he appeared before Letterkenny Circuit Court on Wednesday morning.

Crossan was last week told by the courageous victim to 'rot in hell'.

Crossan, a native of Letterkenny, appeared via video link from Midlands Prison in Portlaoise, where he is in custody and which was given as his current address.

Appearing from video link booth 3, Crossan showed little emotion as Judge John Aylmer passed sentencing.

The victim was in court accompanied by his wife and flanked by two detectives.

Crossan pleaded guilty to seven counts of indecent assault and two counts of sexual assault, which were representative of 52 counts of such offending in a period spanning March 1987 and December 1992 when the victim was aged between 10 and 15.

Judge Aylmer said that the evidence established that the victim was indecently or sexually assaulted “in a sustained manner on a weekly basis over a six-year period”.

At the time, Crossan was in a position of authority as a parish priest and the offending represented “a very grave breach of trust”, Judge Aylmer said.

The most serious offences regularly involved the violation of the male victim, who was taken into Crossan's bed and had his genitals fondled as the disgraced priest masturbated.

Judge Aylmer said: “The sexual abuse had a devastating psychological impact on the child, an impact that continues to weigh upon him.”

Judge Aylmer said that four counts of indecent assault by touching the child's genitals merited a starting point of six years imprisonment; a count of sexual assault by touching the child's genitals merited a starting point of three years imprisonment; while three counts of indecent assault by kissing the child on the lips and cuddling him merited a starting point of three years imprisonment; with a count of sexual assault on a similar charge meriting a starting point of 18 months imprisonment.

Judge John Aylmer

The charges relate to dates in the late 1980s and early 1990s at locations within County Donegal.

The victim served as an altar boy and the court heard the abuse would often happen while Crossan was wearing vestments and ready to say Mass as they were in the sacristy or the clerk's room of a Church.

Judge Aylmer said that Crossan entered a guilty plea, albeit a late one on the trial date, but the plea spared the victim in a matter where the accused largely denied the charges.

Admissions were “quite limited” when Crossan was quizzed by detectives, Judge Aylmer said.

“Those limited admissions are tempered somewhat in that it appears that the accused remains to a large extent in denial,” he said. “The remorse, unfortunately, is limited. Victim empathy is limited.”

Judge Aylmer said that the first time Crossan had some grasp of the affect his offending had was when a victim impact statement was read to him.

Mr Peter Nolan BL, barrister for Crossan, told the court that his client has been in custody since August 2022 on these charges.

Crossan has been ostracised from his family and accommodation in County Kildare which was previously provided by the Raphoe Diocese, is no longer being made available to him.

In 2021, Crossan was jailed for three years, with the final 12 months suspended, when he pleaded guilty to single charge of indecent assault against another boy at the parochial house in Kincasslagh on a date unknown between 1984 and 1985.

At that time, he was placed on the sex offenders register for ten years.

Crossan was a priest in the Raphoe Diocese from 1976, but when a complaint was made to the Church in 1998 he was immediately laicised.

Judge Aylmer said Crossan had consent to bail, “but he had nowhere to go”.

Crossan attended the Granada Institute following a report of abuse. There, he underwent a sex offender treatment programme, but Judge Aylmer said that it appeared that this was “not very effective.”

Crossan has enhanced status in prison and he received a positive report from the governor.

Crossan was sentenced to five years imprisonment on four counts of indecent assault by touching the boy's genitals; to two-and-a-half years in prison on a count of sexual assault by touching the boy's genitals; to two-and-a-half years in jail on three counts of indecent assault by kissing the victim on the lips and cuddling; and to 15 months in prison no a charge of sexual assault by kissing the victim on the lips and cuddling.

All of the sentences are to run concurrently and were back-dated to August, 2022 when Crossan went into custody on these charges.

Having regard to Crossan's age and what he said was the “ongoing need for rehabilitation and reintegration into society” and having regard to the fact that Crossan has been in custody since August, 2022, Judge Aylmer suspended the final 12 months of the five-year sentence.

Crossan is to be placed under the supervision of the Probation Service for 12 months after his release and must comply with all directions of the Probation Service.
Crossan is to have no unsupervised contact with children or young people, be it via employment, leisure of sporting activity.

Crossan was charged with almost 100 offences against the same victim, who last week bravely took to the witness box after the horrific abuse was relayed in court.

“I hope that you return to rot where you came from,” the man, now aged in his 40s, told Crossan. “If there is a God, then there is definitely a Hell – and that is what is waiting on you.”

The victim told how hearing details of a previous case against Crossan “pulled me back to the depths”.

“Each word read like punch to face,” he said in his victim impact statement. “I froze as the name was revealed as Eamon Crossan. The words fell on me like a ton of bricks as the name of the priest who abused me was read. I felt sick to my stomach”

The man said he has struggled with mental health, anxiety and nightmares and has had suicidal thoughts and trust issues.

“I wondered if I was worthy of being here at all.”

He told Crossan that the trauma has affected his entire family “who you also groomed in order to have your way with a child.”

Crossan's guilty plea only came following a lengthy discussion with his legal team after it was initially anticipated that a jury would be required for a trial.

Detective Garda Ciaran O'Brien - who outlined the case to barrister for the State Ms Fiona Crawford BL - said that Crossan made “certain admissions”, but had disputed “certain evidence”.

Crossan would later tell a probation officer that the victim's account was “99 per cent untrue” and maintained that his actions were not sexually motivated.

Detective Garda Ciaran O'Brien

Crossan told detectives that his victim was “good fun to be with.” He said in an interview that there was body contact with the victim “for comfort and warmth” and also “a need for affection”.

Crossan would visit the family home of the victim, which he said was seen at the time as “a great honour” as there was “a reverence involved”. He would take children in his car and regularly buy them crisps, chocolate and Coke.

Crossan was heavily involved in GAA and the victim recalled being admonished by the priest for playing soccer.

The victim said the abuse became “normalised and it felt like he was just educating me.”

On one occasion, the victim recalled Crossan having his penis out and seeing semen on his leg with the priest telling the young boy what is was.

The victim said he would lay in the fetal position “Thinking of happier times and I just felt embarrassed.”

He said the abuse continued and he recalled on one occasion Crossan rubbing his penis against his own and referred to it as “sword fighting”.

Mr Nolan said his client has maintained that his actions were not sexually motivated.

Crossan told a probation officer that he “became a priest at ten and never became a teenager”.

Last week, Monsignor Kevin Gillespie, the Diocesan Administrator for the Raphoe Diocese, said he wished to offer an apology to the victim and his family "for the appalling breach of trust and for the dreadful crimes committed".

Monsignor Gillespie said: "The crimes committed by Eamonn Crossan have caused terrible damage to the lives of his victims and they bring shame upon our diocese.

"Crimes against children and the vulnerable are particularly reprehensible. This must continue to make us alert and proactive in ensuring good practices for a safe environment for all involved in the life of the Church."