Man tells court of alleged sexual abuse by teacher

A man has told a Dublin Circuit Criminal Court jury that his national school teacher would call him up to the top of class, rub his legs, place his hand inside his shorts and fondle his “private parts”.

A man has told a Dublin Circuit Criminal Court jury that his national school teacher would call him up to the top of class, rub his legs, and place his hand inside his shorts.

The man was the third complainant to give evidence in the trial against a former Marist brother and teacher who denies charges of indecent assault on five pupils in the Co Sligo school more than 40 years ago.

The 66-year-old man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded not guilty to 55 charges of indecent assault at the school on a date between July 1, 1968 and June 30, 1977.

He has denied 14 charges in relation to the first two complainants, nine charges in relation to a third, 17 charges in relation to a fourth complainant and one charge in relation to another boy.

The complainant told Ms Mary Rose Gearty SC (with Ms Dara Foynes BL), prosecuting, that he started in the school in 1968 and the accused was his second teacher there.

He said the brother would call him up stand beside the teacher’s desk, or make him sit on his lap “before he held me close to his body and close to his face”.

He told the jury that the accused would then interfere with him.

The man told the jury that at first the incidents did not happen too frequently but they later occurred two to three times a week or even a few times in the one day.

“There was no set pattern,” he said.

He told Ms Gearty that the accused would sometimes rub his face against his and he could remember the stubble and smell of body odour.

The man said he could also remember the second complainant being called up to the desk almost as much as himself and he could specifically remember this boy as he sat next to him in class.

He recalled that the accused wore a cloak “which he would sometimes use to cover me with to interfere with me”.

The first complainant told Ms Gearty that the accused’s class was “mayhem and madness with canings and beatings”.

He said if he cried after a canning, he would be taken to the teacher’s desk where the accused would rub his knee and rub his face up and down on his own face.

He said the accused would rub above and below his knee and up to his backside and around it. He described the incidents as occurring on a daily basis.

The man agreed with Mr Hugh Hartnett SC (with Ms Siobhan Ni Chulachain BL), defending, that he “took to drink at an early age” and that he had some difficulties with his memories as a result. “But I will never forget school,” he said .

He accepted that he had issued proceedings against the order and that his solicitor had put in a claim of €200,000 on his behalf in relation to loss of earnings because he was unable to work due to the sexual assaults on him.

He said he was not sure how his solicitor came to that figure but agreed that he had discussed with them his loss of earnings and education due to the effect the abuse had on him.

The complainant agreed that the gardaí approached him in 1999 in order to make a statement and he had been aware prior to that, that an investigation had been launched.

Mr Hartnett then suggested to the man that he had told a psychiatrist that he had not started to think of the abuse and it was only with the investigation in 1999 that he had allowed the memories to enter into his consciousness.

“I went to alcoholics anonymous meetings every night for two years and that was on my mind all that time,” the complainant replied.

He accepted that he had put the alleged abuse to the back of his mind in order to get on with his life but denied a suggestion from Mr Hartnett that he “had blanked it out”.

“I was always aware that this had happened to me,” he told the jury.

He said that he had flashbacks which he described as the memory of the alleged abuse having “come back to haunt me”.

“The memories of the abuse of the school. What I became as a result of this man,” the complainant said.

He did not accept that he was mistaken and that nothing “untoward had happened”. “That’s not true,” he said.

The trial continues before Judge Patrick McCartan and a jury of seven men and five women.