Monster priest joins brother in jail after sickening abuse of his 3 sisters exposed
by Paul Healy · Irish MirrorThis former priest now joins his brother in prison after admitting the systematic historic rape and abuse of his sisters. Richard Brennan, formerly of Rathfarnham in Dublin, but in recent years resided in the United States, was today jailed to eight years in prison after pleading guilty to a total of 24 charges - consisting of six charges of rape and 18 indecent assaults of his sisters Paula Fay, Catherine Wrightstone and Yvonne Crist, from dates in 1978 to 1985.
Richard (64), who was a seminarian when he started abusing his sister Catherine when she was just nine years old, can today be unmasked - as can his brother Bernard (67), who himself pleaded guilty in June to 11 counts of indecent assault of his sisters in various locations within Ireland between 1972 and 1975.
The court heard how Richard told then child Ms Wrightstone “this is my job” and that “this is what brothers do” as he abused her. His three sisters each delivered powerful victim impact statements where they also spoke of how he used priesthood to hide who he really was.
“You hid behind the Church’s mantle like a wolf in sheep's clothing masking menace with meekness and depravity with sanctity,” survivor Ms Wrightstone told the court.
Today Judge David Keane sentenced Richard to a total of 9 years in prison with one year suspended - with each of the individual sentences for each charge running concurrently.
He was given some credit in mitigation for his guilty plea - nine days into his trial - and a letter of apology he had written in June of this year in which he expressed his “sorrow” for what he’d done and the “generational harm” he had caused.
In his sentencing hearing, Richard blamed his brother Bernard, who he said also abused him and ‘encouraged' him to engage in abusing his sisters. The court heard how he told his sisters he was sexually frustrated as he was training to become a priest in the seminary - and how he begged them for sex while their parents were away.
Prosecuting Counsel Fiona Murphy SC told the court how the offences occurred at an address in Anne Devlin Park, Rathfarnham, Dublin 14. The evidence of Ms Crist, who was present at the hearing via video link from her home in the US, was that Richard attempted to sexually assault her in or around June of 1979 and 1980 - when her parents were in Wexford and when Bernard Brennan was no longer residing in the family home.
The court heard Richard told her during the incident: “Yvonne you can trust me, just let me do it,” as she grabbed the phone and told him if he didn’t leave she would call the police.
Ms Murphy also told the court about the abuse Paula Fay suffered at the hands of Richard Brennan - starting when she was just 14 or 15 years of age. She was asleep in bed and was awoken in the middle of the night by her brother who got into the bed with her and was shushing her to stay quiet, the court heard.
He was begging her and begging her and she eventually gave in, the court heard - as she wanted him out of her bed and “she felt she had no option.” Mr Murphy outlined how Ms Fay could feel Brennan’s erect penis against her leg - and how he pinned her down and told her to “relax” as he sexually assaulted her.
The court was told how Richard Brennan told Ms Fay after the assault that he wouldn’t be able to do that eventually because he was about to become a priest. He then found Ms Fay’s underwear and told her to clean up the mess before he left the room, the court heard.
Brennan was by this stage attending Clonliffe College where he was training to become a priest - and when he was home in the summertime, the abuse occurred. Ms Fay gave another account in which she was in the same bedroom when Richard came into the room crawling across the floor “like a snake” - and told her to be quiet.
Ms Murphy outlined how Brennan told his teenage sister that he had “urges” and that “he needed her to satisfy those urges.” On this occasion Ms Fay said she was doing her best to pretend it wasn’t happening - as Brennan begged her for sexual intercourse and promised he would pull out. Ms Fay indicated she had no option but to allow her brother to proceed in that way, the court heard - and afterwards Brennan “told her how grateful he was.”
Ms Fay also outlined a second incident when she was in her parents bedroom downstairs and was aged between 16 and 17. She “felt awful” during the assault and was closing her eyes, trying to block things out. He again asked for sexual intercourse and told her she was “doing him a favour” and that she has “no idea how good it makes me feel.”
Richard Brennan raped Ms Fay on two further occasions in a similar manner - and finally on the last occasion, when he came crawling into the room - she “finally felt her voice” and screamed at him that this wasn’t happening again.
Finally the court heard about the assaults on Ms Wrightstone - who gave evidence that the first incident happened when she was just nine years old. She recalled wearing her school uniform during the assault - which she said occurred sometime prior to the end of the school year and just after her 9th birthday in June 1980.
Richard Brennan orally assaulted Ms Wrightstone, telling her that “this is my job” and “this is what brothers do.” She remembered him telling her if she had any questions about sex or her body changes to just ask him - and that he told her not to tell others, that they wouldn’t understand and that their family could be “torn apart.”
In relation to another assault the court heard that Richard Brennan adopted a tone that he was “educating” his sister. The final two incidents she detailed occurred in 1985 - and she subsequently gave an account of matters to a teacher who communicated with her parents. Ms Murphy outlined how it was “fair to say” that Ms Wrightstone’s parents “didn’t seem to accept her account of what had happened.”
The court heard that Richard Brennan has no previous convictions - and that he was ordained as a priest in 1989 before moving to America, subsequently leaving the priesthood, marrying and becoming a well known hospital and hospice chaplain in the US.
It also heard how Richard claimed he was abused by his older brother Bernard at a very early age and that he witnessed Bernard abusing his other siblings and was “encouraged to take part in those type of activities.” It also emerged that there was a “family therapy session” a number of years ago in which matters were “swept under the carpet” for many years.
Bernard Brennan was himself jailed for four and a half years in June over four counts of indecent assault against Ms Crist and seven counts of indecent assault against Ms Fay. Ms Crist was aged 13, while Ms Fay was just seven years old when the abuse started.
All three sisters issued powerful victim impact statements in court as they faced Richard, who had returned from the US to face trial. Catherine Wrightstone (54) told Brennan she was in court today “as a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and rape at the hands of my brother, Richard Brennan. “Today, I speak not only for the child I was, but for the 54 year-old adult I am - still healing, still affected, and still seeking justice,” she said.
“Let me be clear, I am not here to ask for vengeance. I am here to ask for recognition of the harm that was done and to help the court understand the lasting impact these crimes have had on my life, and the immense courage it took to come forward as a child, a teenager and then as an adult. I want the court to understand that childhood sexual abuse and rape causes deep and lasting harm beyond the acts themselves. But most important of all, I want my voice to matter—because for too long, it did not,” she said.
Ms Wrightstone said Richard’s crimes against her “left me grappling, for periods of time, with a range of difficulties - she "struggled with flashbacks, nightmares, panic attacks, anxiety, hypervigilance, a strong startle response and body issues.”
She also blasted Richard over his religious persona that he pursued, despite the evil he had perpetrated on her and her sisters. “You hid behind the Church’s mantle like a wolf in sheep's clothing masking menace with meekness and depravity with sanctity. Richard, you can no longer hide behind the mantle of the church. The truth has finally seen the light of day and you no longer control my life.”
In her own powerful statement Paula Fay outlined how she felt “invisible” during her childhood - “a child with no voice, no power, and no sense of worth.
“I learned from an early age to stay silent, to hide my pain, and to expect little from the world. That silence followed me into adulthood and for a long time, I believed that what I felt didn’t matter. Standing here today, I am finally using my voice – not just for the child I was, but for the person I’m still becoming. Richard, by putting me through this trial, you made me re-live the nightmare of my childhood, re-opening deep wounds. But this is my moment. I do matter. My voice matters. The pain that I carry deserves to be heard,” she said.
“Today, I truly step into my identity as a survivor. I am no longer defined by what was done to me, but by the resilience and determination that carried me through.”
In her own harrowing victim impact statement delivered from the US, Yvonne Crist said: “This particular night has had a considerable impact on me. I have nightmares and dreams of this night still occurring to this day. The night you tried to assault me I was terrified of you because you were so strong, and I regret not having called the police back then, as you wouldn’t have been able to continue your sexual behaviors towards my sisters. God was on my side that night. This night affected me so much that I couldn’t get the shame to wash away. You made me feel that I was a dirty person. I began to abhor myself. "In my mind I was a filthy piece of dirt, and I didn’t deserve to live.”
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