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27 April 2015

Priest sexually abused girl while hearing her first confession

Victim says school refused to believe her parents and warned them about complaint.  A 76-year-old retired priest who sexually abused a seven-year-old girl while hearing her first confession has been jailed for two years.
John Calnan, who is no longer in ministry, was sentenced to three years in jail, with the final year suspended, after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting the girl in West Cork in 1989. Sgt Maurice Downey told Cork Circuit Criminal Court that the girl was preparing for her First Holy Communion and Calnan was invited to her school to hear first confessions.