McElwee worked with abused children

The disgraced lecturer, Dr Niall McElwee, who resigned from his post after being charged with sexual offences against three teenage girls, worked part-time in a home for abused and disadvantaged children in Galway.

It has also emerged that he has been working with Gardaí in recent months to advice parents about the dangers of drug abuse for children.

Dr McElwee resigned from his position as a child-care lecturer in Athlone Institute of Technology (AIT) earlier this month after it emerged that he was convicted of attempting lewd acts on three American teenagers at a hotel in Amsterdam in 2004.

It later emerged that both the Gardaí and the Midlands Health Board, now Midlands Health Service Executive (HSE), were aware of the allegations, but failed to inform the college authorities.

Mr McElwee had been subject to an inquiry in his former workplace, Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) in 1998, over images he had shown to students of children being abused.

Despite the inquiry in WIT, he secured a one-day-a-fortnight position in the HSE-run young people’s residential care centre, Áras Geal, in Salthill.

A spokesperson for the HSE West last night confirmed that he had undergone a vetting procedure before being given a role in the centre in December 2003.

He finished working there in June 2004, the same month that the allegations were made against him in Amsterdam.

Dr McElwee was travelling to Holland as part of a health board-funded task force on drug misuse. Following the allegations made by the three teenagers, a Garda, who was travelling as part of the delegation, informed the health board authorities.

An investigation is underway by the HSE to establish why the former health board did not inform his then employers, AIT, about the allegations.

Former Western Health Board Chief Executive and retired councillor, Val Hanley, said the HSE must tighten up their vetting procedures in light of the recent revelations.

“Elected councillors from all over Galway are on the HSE forums, and they meet once a month. It is up to them to take the matter forward,” he said.

Meanwhile, parents in schools in the midlands have raised concern about a series of talks Dr McElwee recently gave about the dangers of drug use and children.

The most recent of these was on the 27th February, when he gave a talk along side Detective Declan Geraghty of Tullamore, in Ballinamere National School.