I felt like a criminal, says abuse victim

A former teacher has been spared a criminal record as well as a jail sentence for indecently assaulting an eight-year-old boy in the 1960s.

At Dublin District Court yesterday, Judge Anthony Halpin described as “unacceptable conduct” the victim’s decision to make a criminal complaint after he received compensation from his abuser in civil proceedings a decade ago.

Outside court, the victim said: “At one stage in the court, I felt like a criminal, I honestly felt like a criminal.”

The DPP had directed that the case should only proceed in the district court if there was a guilty plea. Otherwise the accused would have to go before a jury trial in the circuit court, which has tougher sentencing powers.

The abuser, who is in his mid-70s, pleaded guilty to a single count of indecent assault of the boy at a location in north Dublin.

Garda Sergeant Liam Donoghue told the court the boy had been invited to the man’s house where he was blindfolded. He was brought around the room and asked to touch objects, including furniture, until the teacher got him to touch parts of his body. The court heard he got the child to put his hand around his penis to masturbate him.

Judge Halpin said he noted the accused was remorseful and his guilty plea meant a jury trial was unnecessary.

He said that in considering the penalty he had to take into account also that the accused had no previous conviction. “He has been living under the threat of being reported for his crime and that threat is crystallised in the form of these proceedings,” the judge said.

He said his order was “facts proved, strike out”.

The victim did not have to give evidence and he sat in the courtroom as the judge gave his decision.

After the case concluded, he said:

“I understand that I should have done things in a different order but, had I done so, I do not think he would have pleaded guilty.”