Brother to challenge indecent assault law

THE Supreme Court has cleared the way for a Christian Brother to bring a challenge to the constitutionality of laws which provide for maximum sentences for indecent assaults of males which are five times higher than maximum sentences for such offences against females.

The 1861 law provides for a 10-year maximum sentence for indecent assault of males and a two year maximum sentence for a first offence of an indecent assault of a female.

The brother, who faces trial on 31 charges of sexually abusing boys in a residential school in Co Galway in the 1960s and 1970s, claims the law is discriminatory on the grounds of gender and therefore unconstitutional and in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights Act 2003.