'Monster' Jailed For 20-Year Reign of Sex Abuse
By Ralph Riegel
Originally published in the Irish Independent, March 8, 2002
Victims of an elderly Brother of Charity, described as "an evil monster" who carried out a 20-year campaign of sexual abuse against vulnerable youngsters, reacted with outrage yesterday after he was jailed for a year for 77 sexual assault offences.
James Kelly (76), also known as Brother Ambrose, was sentenced for five years but with four years suspended yesterday in Cork Circuit Criminal Court after he was convicted before Judge Patrick Moran.
Judge Moran insisted he was suspending four of the five-year jail term because of Br Ambrose's age, his poor health, his remorse and the fact that he pleaded guilty to the 77 offences at the earliest opportunity.
The sentence will date from February 25 last and, with remission for good behaviour, Br Ambrose is likely to walk free from prison before Christmas.
The 76-year-old Brother of Charity has been in prison since October 1999, serving two different prison terms for child sex abuse handed down by Cork and Galway Circuit Courts.
Last year, he had over 34 years of a 36-year jail term the heaviest ever handed out to an Irish paedophile successfully suspended on condition he leave Ireland and never return except at the direction of the courts.
Yesterday, four of the victims who attended Cork Circuit Criminal Court described the sentence as "an insult to victims of paedophiles".
One man sobbed as he explained that Br Ambrose will serve less than one year in prison for having subjected him to 10 years of sexual abuse which devastated his subsequent adult life.
Another victim, Bart McCarthy who described Br Ambrose as "an evil monster" told the Court that his life was destroyed before it had ever really started by the appalling abuse inflicted by James Kelly.
"I was tortured as a child by adults, including this man. My life was ruined and destroyed. He left me a nervous wreck," he declared.
Mr McCarthy who now lives in London said the sentence will send out a disastrous message to the victims of such abuse.
Another man revealed that he had tried to commit suicide on numerous occasions because he couldn't live with the memory of the abuse he suffered in Lota.
Right of Place, a support group for victims of State and clerical school abuses, admitted the sentence was "absolutely astonishing".
The 76-year-old has already been convicted of conducting a reign of sexual terror against youngsters in Cork's Lota facility. Last month, he pleaded guilty to 77 further charges of abusing five young boys aged between 10 and 16 years at Lota between 1953 and 1965.
Br Ambrose had originally pleaded guilty to the charges in Cork District Court and indicated he would not be changing his plea.
The cleric who appeared frail in court yesterday and required two walking sticks to move told Judge Moran he was "full of remorse" for what he had done to the youngsters in his care.
"I am deeply sorry for what I did and the hurt I caused. But I hope that they (the victims) will someday be able to forgive me for what I have done," Br Ambrose added.
The 76-year-old who claimed he was abused as a youngster by older boys in school, by members of his Order and by two priests served at Brothers of Charity facilities in Cork, Galway and Scotland.
He has been convicted of abusing youngsters at all three locations.
In mitigation, Kevin Cross SC, for the defence, told Judge Moran that the 76-year-old requires two hip replacement operations as well as daily medical treatments by a nurse.
He also suffers from heart and renal problems.
Br Ambrose last month completed a sentence handed down by Galway Circuit Court for indecent assault offences but is still in prison because the publicity surrounding the case caused problems for the Order in securing a British or Belgian nursing home where Br Ambrose could retire.
This was required as a condition to Br Ambrose's early release under the terms of the Cork Circuit Criminal Court ruling last year.
Br John O'Shea, the Irish Superior of the Brothers of Charity Order, admitted that the publicity surrounding the case had rendered it almost impossible for the Order to transfer Br Ambrose to a facility in either Britain or Belgium.
