Victim: System that let paedophile return to school ‘a joke’

THE system which allowed a convicted paedophile to return to his school caretaker position and abuse four more boys has been branded a joke by his original victim.

On Monday, Michael Ferry, 55, was jailed for 14 years for the rape and sexual abuse of four boys in the school over a 15-year period up to 2005.

The school where he worked continued to employee him even after a 2002 conviction for sexually abusing a boy in the 1980s.

Ferry, of Carrick Boyle, Gweedore, Co Donegal, pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to 38 sample charges which included 17 oral and anal rapes, 18 sex assaults, one indecent assault and two charges of production of child pornography on dates between July 1, 1990 and September 31, 2005.

In 2002, Ferry was convicted of two counts of indecent assault of a boy at the same school in 1985 and 1986. He received a six-month sentence, which was suspended in full, and was registered as a sex offender for five years.

Yesterday, that victim, who wishes to remain anonymous, described his shock when he learned the caretaker was still working around children on a daily basis.

“1985, 86 it happened to me. I took him to court, he only got a suspended sentence but I was happy enough with it that he had been convicted,” he said.

“But then a while later I heard he was still on a school bus up in the same local parish. People knew about it but nobody was really doing anything.

“When you look back on it, with him still on the bus and the school still employing him — you’d wonder if there was a bigger picture behind it all,” he continued.

“My sister seen him and she was shocked but I was livid because people knew what he’d done and here he was still with access to children, ushering them on and off the bus.”

“The sex offenders register is a joke,” he said. “Put people on it and what happens? Nobody really pays attention; nobody really has access to find out who is doing what and where they’re doing it.”

“Most guards, if they could speak their mind, would say the register is a joke as well because it can’t be enforced, they can’t enforce it.”

The man went on to pay tribute to Ferry’s latest victims, one of whom surrendered his right to anonymity on Monday to encourage other abuse victims to come forward.

“I feel sorry for these boys to have to come here today, to have to go through what they went through to get here.

“Fair play to them for doing what they’ve done and at least they won’t have to come back here in 10 years’ time to hear about what’s happened to some other poor young fella. They’ve got him in jail now so he can’t do it to anyone else.”

Asked if he had any advice for the four men, he said they face a long road but urged them to communicate with those around them.

“They have to talk to people about how they’re feeling, because they’ve been so confused for so long. It took me fifteen years before I could figure out who I was and what I wanted.

“Definitely it was a hard long road but it was a road well worth travelling for the finish.”

The school that employed Ferry said it will issue a statement next week.