By DPA,
Wellington : A 73-year-old Catholic clergyman was sentenced Friday to two years, nine months in prison for sexually abusing mentally handicapped boys at a residential school 30 years ago in Christchurch, news reports said.
Brother Rodger Moloney, who was prior of the St. John of God order, which ran the school, was found guilty last month on seven charges after a three-week trial.
He was acquitted of 16 other offences.
His sentence concludes a long investigation into more than 125 complaints against five Catholic brothers who taught at the school, which closed in 1985.
Moloney is the fourth of the brothers to be sentenced, and the fifth, who was extradited with Moloney from Australia, was ruled too ill to stand trial, escaping prosecution.
The Catholic Church has reportedly paid more than $3.65 million in compensation to boys who were abused at the school from 1974 to 1977.