Richard Brennan entered guilty pleas after each of the three women had given evidence before a jury and before the final woman was about to be cross-examined.

Passing sentence in the Central Criminal Court on Thursday, Mr Justice Paul McDermott said the facts of the case were “appalling”.

A lawyer said the court was waiting for an assessment over whether ex-DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson’s wife was fit to stand trial later this year.

Kieran Meaney, of Hennessy Street, Killee, Co Limerick, was found guilty by a jury of 14 counts of indecently assaulting the two sisters

A former school teacher and convicted rapist has been told he will spend another five years in jail after being convicted of indecently assaulting eight boys

Martin O'Flaherty (73) has 103 previous convictions for the indecent assault of 22 boys

Sharkey is charged with a number of offences from sexual to indecent assault against at least a dozen young boys on various occasions in the 1970s and 1980s.

The court said the accused failed to establish there has been such a fundamental denial of justice that no trial should take place.

Cork Circuit Criminal Court heard Noel Sheehan (78) does not accept the jury's guilty verdict

John Merrick (77) pleaded guilty to seven charges of indecent assault

The 72-year-old man was convicted last March on a total of 25 charges of indecent assault in relation to the six victims

Mr Dunne described how he has suffered from “depression, anxiety, and self-loathing which I put on myself for not speaking up sooner”.

At Ennis Circuit Court, the man - who turns 81 in May - has pleaded guilty to 12 separate counts of indecent assault against the five boys from 1976 to 1981 at four locations in Clare and Limerick.

Jacintha McSherry O'Connor (63), of the Mullins, Donegal Town, Co Donegal, was found guilty of two counts of indecently assaulting a male student in 1985

The two victims were aged between 14 and 16 at the time of the abuse.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard the abuse occurred while Jacintha McSherry O'Connor (now 63) worked as a student teacher at a Dublin secondary school

Although the victim waived her right to anonymity, so her uncle could be named, the accused cannot be identified for other legal reasons