Retired teacher denies alleged victims were pushed in lake

A retired teacher has denied that one of the alleged victims of sexual abuse at a special school in Limerick was ever pushed in a lake and left to find his own way back from a school outing.

The jury in the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court trial of a teacher accused of sexually abusing the two mentally handicapped youths also heard a psychiatrist question aspects of the interviewing techniques used by gardai.

Dr John McEvoy told defence counsel Mr Martin Giblin SC that while "leading questions" had to be used, he felt that some of the questions asked by gardai were "suggestive" and could be misconstrued as if "they were looking for a story".

Dr McEvoy who had viewed video recordings of interviews with the alleged victims said: "True and trusted techniques empowered people with intellectual disability to tell their own story".

The female retired teacher told the jury that when pupils and staff got back on the bus to leave Cratloe Woods, where they had been for a picnic, everyone was accounted for.

The 22-year-old youth earlier told the court he had been sexually assaulted in a shed in Cratloe Woods by the accused and later pushed into the water as well as being left to get back to the school by himself.

The retired teacher said that when they left no one was in the water and no one had been pushed in.

Another teacher said that the accused would bring this alleged victim back to her class after taking the children out for the morning. She said that he never came back naked and never came back with his clothes wet.

The 48-year-old married father-of-two, from Co Tipperary, has pleaded not guilty to a total of four counts of sexually assaulting two mentally impaired youths in Limerick, Clare and at his home on dates between September 9, 1994, and March 31, 1997.

The evidence in the case has ended and closing speeches will begin before Judge Yvonne Murphy and a jury of six men and six women on Monday.