A former national basketball coach has been jailed for 14 years and two months in prison for abusing 10 boys in the 1980s.

Bill Kenneally was sentenced at Waterford Circuit Court this morning

Judge Eugene O'Kelly said the 10 counts were a representative sample of more than 70 charges before the court.

The offenses occurred over a four year period in the mid 1980s.

The judge said Kenneally came from a relatively privileged background and worked as an accountant and that he had an appetite of sexual gratification for young boys.

The offenses happened in Kenneally's home, without the knowledge of his parents, or in his car or at various other locations.

The court heard the gardaí were aware of an informal complaint in 1987 but that the current prosecution comes from victims going to the gardaí in 2012.

Judge O'Kelly said Kenneally had taken on the guise of being a coach or a mentor, he groomed them for the sexual exploitation of them for months and years and he had money at a time when many were struggling.

He spent his money on cars which had an impression on the young boys.

He gave them money, initially appearing as a gift, but then as a debt which they had to work off with alcohol and images of pornography.

One of the features of many predatory pedophiles is the pattern....the abuse was very similar for each of the boys.

Judge then highlighted some of the abuse, saying each victim had suffered devastating psychological consequences, and the impact statements make harrowing reading.

He said the victims were powerless to prevent the abuse, with some suffering from alcohol dependency and depression and one contemplating suicide.

Family life has suffered, and one of the boys was abused on the very morning he was to sit his Inter Cert Leaving Cert English examination.

You have all been robbed of the innocence of your childhood.

Kenneally gained the trust of the boys as a Sunday soccer coach - judge

The judge said there are very strict sentencing guidelines and that the law for sentencing applies to the time offense occurred, when the maximum sentence was two years in prison, pre-1991. Since then the law has been changed to 14 years maximum, reflecting contemporary society's repugnance to the abuse.

He said the aggravating factors included the nature of the abuse, the effect on the victims, the intensity of the abuse and scale of the gravity, which is on the upper end of the scale of the assault. 

He said Mr Kenneally gained the trust of the boys as a Sunday soccer coach, or at basketball or tennis club.  This was all manipulative grooming for the abuse which was to follow. 

Another factor he said was the way he left the victims feeling degraded, and mentioned the fact he said he was part of the Kenneally family and that he would never be believed.  He said Polaroid did not have to be processed by a third party and were some sort of insurance against disclosure.

Another factor he said was the persistence of the abuse, over many years, a complete lack of a moral compass.

A fifth factor is the number of victims involved, number may have been double that he told gardaí, but the judge said he is only concerned with the 10 victims before the court.

A sixth factor he said was the group participation of the boys, creating a distorting perception which might be considered the norm.

The use of devices such as handcuffs is another factor he said.  He said some of the victims were tied to trees and left for a time at nighttime.  What some of the victims disclose is certainly violence said the judge.

And he said the use of alcohol was another factor as it was used to facilitate the abuse, with Keneally never drinking himself.  The payment of money was another aggravating factor he said, with substantial amounts of money being given to the boys, which was bribery.

Maximum sentence of two years on each count is warranted, said Judge O'Kelly.