A former priest who finished a 14-year prison sentence for abusing more than 30 boys will return to jail after being found guilty of abusing another two altar boys.

Key points: Vincent Ryan was the subject of intense scrutiny during the Newcastle hearings of the royal commission into child sex abuse

Vincent Ryan was the subject of intense scrutiny during the Newcastle hearings of the royal commission into child sex abuse He was today found guilty of sexually abusing two altar boys at parishes in the Hunter region

He was today found guilty of sexually abusing two altar boys at parishes in the Hunter region The judge said he had been rehabilitated and was unlikely to reoffend but the seriousness of the crimes necessitated jail time

Vincent Gerard Ryan, 81, will spend up to another three years and three months in jail for two offences each against two boys during the 1970s and 1990s at parishes in the Hunter region.

He was found guilty of sexually abusing one boy in a church sacristy after giving him altar wine, and another boy who was upset after attending at a funeral.

The boys were aged between 10 and 12 at the time of the abuse.

Ryan leaves court in 2016. ( ABC News: Antoinette Lattouf )

District Court Judge Dina Yehia said the victims were entitled to a childhood free of abuse and the problems it caused them later life.

She said they were betrayed in a most egregious way.

She said even though Ryan was rehabilitated and unlikely to reoffend, a non-custodial sentence was not an option due to the seriousness of his crimes.

Ryan was released in 2010 after being handed a 14-year sentence for the abuse of 34 boys between 1973 and 1991.

The court heard Ryan had been traumatised by numerous assaults while in prison, and returning him to jail would have "devastating consequences" for his physical and mental health.

In 2016, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse hearing in Newcastle investigated abuse at the hands of Ryan, who worked in the Maitland-Newcastle diocese for decades.