Documentary record Bound by Fear
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Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Catholic Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom (offences); tried at the Central Criminal Court, Dublin, Ireland · 2023

Ireland/Scotland: priest jailed after Court of Appeal overturned a fully suspended sentence for sexually assaulting a vulnerable woman

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

Catholic priest, active in parishes in Glasgow, Los Angeles and Ireland during the 1980s

Organization

Catholic parishes, Glasgow, Los Angeles and Ireland

Spiritual nexus

Dunne, a Catholic priest who served in parishes in Glasgow, Los Angeles and Ireland through the 1980s, sexually assaulted and harassed a string of young women and girls, targeting a vulnerable woman under his pastoral care in Glasgow in 1989; church authorities repeatedly failed to stop him despite complaints, simply allowing him to move to new parishes.

  • Pastoral or clerical authority
  • Institutional obedience or isolation

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 2023-03-10 · guilty plea and initial sentence

    Central Criminal Court, Dublin, Ireland. Pleaded guilty to five counts of indecently assaulting a vulnerable young woman between January and December 1989; sentenced to 4 years, wholly suspended.

  2. 2023-12-18 · appeal — sentence increased

    Court of Appeal, Ireland. Prosecution appeal upheld; suspended sentence overturned, with 2 of the 4 years to be served in custody, taking into account the offender's age and family circumstances.

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • priestly authority used to target an 'extremely vulnerable' woman he had pastoral responsibility for
  • church authorities allowed him to move between parishes across three countries despite repeated complaints

Primary record

Sources

national newspaper court reporting criminal disposition and nexus Irish Times, 'Ex-priest's fully suspended sentence for violent sexual assaults of vulnerable woman is overturned' (Dec. 18, 2023).

Report on the Court of Appeal decision overturning the suspended sentence, confirming the underlying Glasgow assaults and multi-parish pattern.

national newspaper court reporting corroboration Sunday Post, 'Shamed priest Joseph Dunne finally jailed for sexual abuse.'

Scottish press coverage detailing Dunne's parish history in Glasgow, LA and Ireland and the pattern of church inaction on complaints.

Related record

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