A former Roman Catholic brother has been jailed for three years after being found guilty at Luton Crown Court of sex assaults on four young girls. Liam Roberts, 80, from Evison Road, Rothwell, Northamptonshire, molested the girls during the 1960s and 1970s.
Roberts was a lay brother called Augustine at a priory in Bethnal Green, East London and then worked at a church in Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire.
He admitted one indecent assault but denied 15 of the other 16 charges.
'Lasting effect'
Judge Jeffrey Burke QC told Roberts: "You abused four young girls over a period of 10 years and caused each incalculable damage.
"It must have had a substantial and lasting effect on them."
Roberts appeared for sentence having been found guilty of 14 charges of indecent assault and two of indecency with a child.
He had admitted one of the indecent assault charges.
The court heard that two of the girls were abused at the priory in Bethnal Green.
In the late 1970s, Roberts moved to the church in Rickmansworth where he abused the other two victims.
One victim, who is now 48, told the jury the offences began when she was nine.
She said: "Disgusting Augustine - that was my name for him.
"He was a horrible, horrible man who made me perform disgusting acts on him and took away my childhood."
Roberts' barrister Samuel Stein said that Roberts had suffered from depression since his twenties.
He said he now had problems with his hearing and had no family support.
The barrister said: "If he is imprisoned, it will in effect be a sentence imposed that will be served in hospital."
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(Source: BBC)
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