A FORMER cleric jailed last year for the sex abuse of three boys has been sentenced again for the abuse of a fourth victim.
However, given the legal principle of 'totality of sentence', Vincent Lewis (91) will serve no extra jail time because his three-year term was made to run concurrently with the eight-and-a-half-year sentence handed down in January last year.
That sentence, which could see Lewis - formerly Brother Ambrose - free by the summer of 2022, is under review by the Court of Appeal after being referred by Attorney General John Larkin QC as being 'unduly lenient'.
On Friday Dungannon Crown Court Judge Neil Rafferty told the former monk with Our Lady of Bethlehem Monastery in Portglenone in Co Antrim, that while he led an "unencumbered" life, his victims had to suffer a "lifetime spoilt" by his abuse.
The judge praised the "bravery" of his victim, telling him but for "people like you in coming forward these offences would remain unpunished and it is right they are punished".
He said he was "completely and utterly convinced that sexual abuse has cost untold harm and damage to so many people". He said the damage, like the scars it produced, often went unseen.
Telling his victim that Lewis was "entirely to blame" for what happened to him, the judge said Lewis's age had "precious little" to do with his sentencing but that this guilty pleas were of "significant benefit... and certainly welcome", acknowledging as they did Lewis's acceptance of his wrongdoing which vindicated his victim.
Ciaran Harvey, prosecuting, told the court that the abuse of the latest victim also occurred in the mid-1980s after the former monk left holy orders, married and moved to Annagher Road in Coalisland, Co Tyrone.
Mr Harvey said that in essence Lewis, who pleaded guilty to five charges of gross and indecent assault, subjected the then 10-year-old to repeated acts of "oral rape, accompanied by acts of degradation", and when finally done with him, told the boy he "didn't need him any more and not to come back". He gave him £20 as payment for the abuse he suffered, sometimes twice a week for months on end.
Mr Harvey said the month after Lewis was sentenced for the abuse of three boys, two of them brothers, the man came forward to make his complaint to police. When questioned about the abuse, Lewis, who once claimed he was "not really" attracted to young boys, told police he was "not in a position to answer your questions at this time".
Noel Dillon, defending, said Lewis had made immediate pleas which unfortunately, given the question mark over his previous sentence, could not be proceeded with until now.
He added that even the victim was "exasperated" that the case, which came to the crown court last August, could not be dealt with but that he wanted "to thank him for doing the right thing by pleading guilty".
Mr Dillon said Lewis, who remains in good health, has "apologised for his offences, and continues to pray for the victim".
