User:rorynoonanDate:23/02/2013Time:09:29:45Edition:23/02/2013Satsatecho230213Page:1Color:
EE - V1
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2013
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Laya hikes up prices by 11%
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THOUSANDS of private healthcare customers are to be hit with hikes up to 16.5% but the average will be 11%. Laya Healthcare is to up its prices from the start of April — the second hike this year, adding around €300 to the average bill. An estimated 500,000 customers will be affected by the move. It’s now expected that other health insurance companies such as GloHealth, Aviva and VHI will increase their premiums as well. ● See page three for more
Nicola Dwyer, Kinsale, Aoife Power, Limerick and Rachel Dwyer, Riverstick and (left) Linda O’Keeffe, Newmarket; Philomena Murnane, Bantry and Danielle Hegarty, Bandon, at the Cork City Garda Divisional dinner at the Rochestown Park Hotel last night. Picture: David Keane
Priest jailed for abuse of boy, 11
Fr Vincent Mercer: Three year sentence for sex abuse.
Victim: ‘I was robbed of my childhood’ A DOMINICAN priest who sexually abused a young boy for several years has been jailed for three years with half the sentence suspended.
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EDITION NO. 34,843
Fr Vincent Mercer, aged 66, who is out of ministry but remains a member of the Dominican Order, told his victim he was sorry yesterday at Cork Circuit Criminal Court. Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin said: “This was a most serious breach of trust given Mercer’s occupation at the time and the difference of age, he being an adult and the boy being 11 at the time – a significant age gap. “Mr Mercer was a family friend, he had been received into the family as a friend, there was a significant breach of trust.” Garda Caroline Keogh said the victim’s par-
By LIAM HEYLIN Court Report
ents had trusted Mercer as a friend to the extent that he was a weekly visitor at their home. The abuse developed from fondling the boy’s genitals outside his clothing, to inside his clothing, to masturbation and oral sex. The then priest at St. Mary’s on Pope’s Quay, Cork, brought the boy to prayer groups and similar gatherings and sexually assaulted him in the car on the way to and from these meetings. There were a number of overnights at religious centres where further abuse occurred. The abuse advanced from the time he was 11 to age 17. The victim said: “At the tender age of ● Continued on page two.
John Horgan’s verdict on hurling opener: See Sport