Andrew Carey
andrew@limerickpost.ie
A RETIRED teacher has been remanded in custody after being found guilty of 30 charges of indecently assaulting a number of schoolboys he taught in a Limerick school over 35 years ago.
Following a trial that included nine days of evidence and more than 10 hours of deliberations over four days, the jury of seven men and five women convicted the retired teacher by majority verdict on 30 counts but were unable to reach agreement on a verdict in the remaining 42 charges before the court.
The teacher, who can not be named for legal reasons, did not seek bail following the pronouncement of the jury’s verdict and has been remanded in custody pending a sentencing hearing next month.
The 73-year-old retired teacher faced multiple charges of indecently assaulting 13 Limerick schoolboys on dates between September 1, 1978 and June 30, 1981.
During the trial, the teacher denied all 72 counts relating to the 13 boys in the Limerick school.
However, the jury convicted the teacher of assaults on six of the complainants, but were unable to reach a verdict in relation to the other seven men.
During the trial, the jury sitting before Limerick Circuit Court heard evidence that Detective Garda Deirdre Foley told the court that after receiving complaints relating to the allegations, gardai obtained the roll book from the Limerick primary school and interviewed all members of the class who attended during the relevant years.
The teacher was convicted of inappropriately touching and fondling the genitals of the boys, both inside and outside their clothing in the classroom at the primary school. He was also convicted of forcibly kissing a schoolboy on the lips in the corridors of the Limerick school at various times during the year.
Former students of the school described how they felt humiliated at the actions of the teacher.
”I thought he was tickling me, I had no understanding… but then I felt humiliated, ashamed and frightened,” he recalled.
He described how he sat frozen at his desk, as the teacher walked around the class room.
“In the end you would be terrorised as he walked down the aisle hoping he would pass you by and wouldn’t be next,” be continued.
One complainant, in his evidence, said that he was fearful at times during class as the teacher would “molest boys at random”.
One of the witnesses said that “The first thing I can remember, and the most striking is that he would stick his hands down my pants and sexually assault me, every day, sometimes twice a day, week in week out, month after month
The jury of seven men and five women heard details of two statements that were read in to court from two members of the class who said that they did not see any of the abuse occurring.
During the nine days of evidence in the trial, a Limerick sex offender attributed his own crimes to the fact he was allegedly sexually abused buy the teacher.
The 44-year-old man who is serving a prison sentence told the trial that he “vividly” remembers the teacher as they had “a lot of interactions”.
The convicted sex offender said his teacher “managed the class with the threat of violence”. He would beat the students as well as carry out the indecent assaults.
“I would be sitting at my desk and he would loosen my tie and unbutton my shirt before putting his hand down the front of my body and touching my private parts”.
“This happened up to three times a week. Sometime he would be touching himself too under his cloak”.
He claimed that he was also abused in the cloakroom and during PE class.
“We were doing exercises and I was lying down on my back, like everyone else, and he would kneel down and touch me inside my shorts”.
During his evidence, the 44-year-old said “the abuse against me was the biggest contributing factor to my offending. It was a consequence of what I suffered”.
However the jury said that they were unable to reach a verdict relating to these charges.
Another witness said that the teacher kissed him on the lips.
“His lips would be moving over mine as I would be trying to pull back. He would then asked me if I liked it, before sending me home. I would brace myself at storytime as he would sit on my desk and open my shirt before putting his hand down to touch my penis and testicles”, he said.
Earlier in the trial, the court heard that the teacher allegedly made a young boy stand inside a makeshift “dock” where he indecently assaulted him at the top of the classroom.
The teacher asked the class what punishment the boy should receive and the witness described how the teacher pulled down his underwear and touched his private parts.
“I couldn’t react because I was terrified. I got slapped with leather after he was finished with the ‘so-called court case’,” but again the jury were unable to reach a verdict relating to this charge.
Shortly before 4:30pm this Wednesday, the jury returned their verdicts in 30 of the 72 charges and advised the court that they would not be able to agree a verdict on the remaining counts.
State Prosecution Counsel John O’Sullivan said that following the return of the 30 guilty verdicts, he would have to take instruction from the DPP on the remaining charges.
Judge John Hannan thanked the jury for their efforts and many hours in deliberating and expressed his “gratitude for doing so”.
Given the length of the trial and the “difficult and challenging evidence”, Judge Hannan excused each of the 12 jurors from jury service for a period of 10 years.
Defence Counsel Andrew Sexton said that the teacher was not applying for bail and Judge Hannan remanded the 73-year-old in custody, on consent, to December 9 next for the court to fix an early date for sentencing.
