A Dublin teacher who groomed and sexually abused a 10-year old boy has been jailed for two years.

John O'Donoghue of the Gallops in Sandyford pleaded guilty to abusing the boy between January 1989 and December 1991.

The court heard how the boy used to call over to John O’Donoghue’s house to mow his lawn during the school holidays.

It was early 1989 and this is when the abuse first started. O’Donoghue, who was around 28 at the time, began groping the 10-year-old while pretending to wrestle him.

The victim told Gardai that he used to take him to cinema or the amusements in Bray afterwards.

Some 20 years later he asked O’Donoghue for some money to get over a drug addiction which he attributed to the abuse.

O'Donoghue gave him €10,000 and during the course of his treatment, the victim made a complaint to Gardai.

Judge Mary-Ellen Ring described the actions of O'Donoghue as 'a disturbing breach of trust at a vulnerable time in the boy’s development'.

She spoke about his work as a teacher over the last 30 years and how he also worked with children as a director of the Irish Table Tennis Association.

She then sentenced him to 3 and a half years with the last 18 months suspended.