In June 2001, the same court in Guatemala City sentenced three soldiers and a priest to lengthy prison terms for their roles in the assassination of Bishop Juan Gerardi.

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The priest is now in prison, but for Frank, the Church has not done enough to pay for his wrecked life.

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Mr Quinn's family, along with his solicitors and parish priest, had written to the prison governor to ask that he be released for a week from Saturday until December 27, not just for Christmas but also to attend the christening of his grand-daughter.

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To visit Central Americans in prison he dressed in a priest's clothes and called himself Padre Jaime.

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The state threatened a new prosecution on additional charges unless the priest pleaded guilty to those, in exchange for no added prison time.

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The family's home parish priest, Fr Gerry Comiskey, said he was visiting Sean Quinn senior in prison on Thursday when the prison governor came to tell Mr Quinn that he would be allowed home for Christmas.

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He then is said to have tied Geoghan's hands behind his back, gagged him and wound a sheet around the former priest's neck, tightening it with a shoe before beating him severely until prison guards realised what was happening and intervened, the paper said.

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