Review due on sex offender working at school

THE HSE is due next month to complete a review into how a caretaker on the sex offenders register remained working at a Donegal school and was able to rape and sexually assault four boys — even though he had already been convicted of abuse at the school.

Michael Ferry abused the four boys on an almost weekly basis, some for as long as four years — despite receiving a six-month suspended sentence for sexual abuse in 2002. He abused the boys between 1990 and 2005 even though he was on the sex offenders register between 2002 and 2007.

After sentencing him to 14 years at the Central Criminal Court last summer, Mr Justice Paul Carney said the authorities must have been aware Ferry had a conviction for a similar offence. Justice Minister Alan Shatter asked the Garda Commissioner to investigate if, after the first conviction, gardaí and the HSE had contact with the school management.