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A former Christian Brother teacher in jail for indecently assaulting several boys has been sentenced to five years imprisonment for the indecent assault of another four children nearly 50 years ago.
The 72-year-old man is already serving a sentence for the historic indecent assault of a number of boys at a primary school in County Kilkenny.
He has gone through five trials pertaining to these offences and has a total of 80 previous convictions for indecent assault. The sentence he is currently serving is due to expire in September 2030.
In the most recent case for which he was sentenced yesterday (Monday, 29th July), the man was found guilty by a jury of 23 counts of indecently assaulting four boys in the Co Kilkenny school where he was teaching between September 1976 and June 1977.
The verdicts were handed down following a Dublin Circuit Criminal Court trial last June.
The court heard that the man, who can’t be named for legal reasons, does not accept the verdicts of the jury. He has similar matters pending before the courts.
The court heard the indecent assaults occurred when he called each boy up to the top of the classroom where he would put his hands down their trousers and touch their buttocks and genitals.
Sentencing the man yesterday, Judge Elma Sheahan said the offending involved “the degradation and abuse of these boys in the school setting in the presence of their peers”. She noted that as their teacher, the man was the person in charge and in a position of power.
She said it was a “significant breach of trust” and repetitious, noting that he has a lengthy history of similar offending.
The judge handed down a sentence of five years, which she backdated to when the man was convicted of these offences in June. The sentence handed down means he will not spend further time in jail in relation to these offences.
In victim impact statements read out in court by prosecuting counsel Geraldine Small, SC, one of the complainants, described how he was a “confident, cheerful boy” who loved going to school until the man became his teacher.
He said after the abuse began, he “fell apart” and lost all his confidence. He had previously done very well in school, but his schoolwork started to deteriorate as a result of the abuse. He said he struggled to sleep, was anxious and nervous and dreaded school. He said the abuse continued to affect him into his adult years.
Another complainant described how the abuse stays with him to this day, even though it was over 45 years ago.
“I feel like this man is a monster,” he said. “He used his power to take advantage of young boys.” The man said he struggled with alcohol abuse in his adult life as a result.
Ronan Kennedy SC, defending, said the man went on to work in a number of other schools in his career, and no other complaints were made against him in respect of these schools. He has also worked in other areas, including in the Christian Brother missions abroad.
He said the man entered the Christian Brothers as a teenager. He said the man will be in custody until his late 70s as a result of his offending and he urged the court to be as lenient as possible.
