One of the country’s most successful amateur boxing coaches has been jailed for 6 and a half years for abusing five teenage boys.

64 year old Frank Mulligan from Smithboro in Co Monaghan pleaded guilty to counts of sexual assault on dates between 1989 and 2002.

The court heard he made some of his victims pray before and after the sex attacks and told them it was “God’s will”.

One of his victims Gerard Smyth spoke outside Dublin Circuit Criminal Court after the hearing.

“It has been very traumatic and it will be…for some time” he said.

“I hope other people now can come forward and speak out and put these perpetrators behind bars cause it’s where they deserve to be” he added.