Priest guilty of rape with crucifix

Former “singing priest” Tony Walsh, aged 62, faces a maximum sentence of two years in prison for raping a boy with a crucifix, a court has heard.

Walsh committed the offence and two other rapes of the same victim before the Criminal Law (Rape) Amendment Act came into effect in 1990. It means the maximum penalty a judge can impose on each offence is two years.

He is charged with indecent assault as it was the offence which existed at the time. He forced the child to have sex twice, once in the parochial house and on another occasion in a tunnel under the Phoenix Park.