Victim ‘always felt unworthy’ after sex abuse

A normal middle-class teenager’s life collapsed around him when a priest sexually assaulted him in the sick bay of a boarding school in 1979 and returned moments afterwards with a Disprin and a glass of water.

This victim of Tadhg Ó Dálaigh, aged 71, of Woodview, Mount Merrion Avenue, Blackrock, Dublin, and another victim of the priest both told yesterday of attempting suicide as a result of feelings of self-loathing after the sexual abuse.

The abuse in the sick bay was denied by Ó Dálaigh but a jury found him guilty earlier this year. In a statement read by investigating officer Sgt Ann Marie Guiney yesterday, this victim described how the abuse had affected him.