Donegal abuser not previously identified as victim 'did not want to upset his ill mother'

Donegal school caretaker Michael Ferry, today sentenced to 18 years for the rape and sexual assault of four boys, was not identified after a 2002 sexual assault conviction as his victim did not wish to upset Ferry's ill mother.

Ferry (aged 55) went on to abuse four more boys at the same school, where he retained his job after the 2002 conviciton.

The abuse took place on an almost weekly basis, for as long as four years in some cases. He groomed his victims by supplying them with alcohol, cigarettes and money. He would also make them watch pornography with him, with one boy reporting to gardaí that the man had shown him child pornography.

The judge said the authorities must have been aware that Ferry had a conviction for a similar offence yet he continued working in the school.

“A disturbing feature of this case is that the outrages perpetrated in the school predate and postdate the sexual assault of a pupil in the same school for which he was placed on the sex offenders register for five years,” Mr Justice Paul Carney commented.

“Despite the fact that he pleaded guilty to sexual assault in 2002 he remained working in the school to continue to engage in the stalking and grooming with which we are concerned with today. This must have been known to the local gardaí and presumably the school authorities.”

Mr Justice Carney noted Ferry was not identified in media reports of the 2002 conviction because the district court judge at the time ordered he remain anonymous. This was because the victim knew Ferry’s mother was ill and did not want to upset her.

Following today’s sentencing, Mr Justice Carney refused to make an order that Ferry not be identified in reports.

“Look what happened the last time,” he told defence counsel. “I don’t see how publication of his name could identify any particular victim.”

Mr Justice Carney took into account Ferry’s guilty plea and “genuine remorse” but also noted that he had abused a position of trust and engaged in the “systematic grooming of the boys”.

Contact with victims prohibited

Mr Justice Carney imposed an 18-year sentence with the final four suspended. He ordered Ferry be registered as a sex offender and that he never have contact with his victims again.

Ferry of Bunbeg, Gweedore, Co Donegal, pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to 38 sample charges which included 17 oral and anal rapes, 18 sex assaults, one indecent assault and two charges of production of child pornography on dates between July 1, 1990 and September 31, 2005.

Two of the boys later told gardaí that they were abused by Ferry in the school after he got them so drunk they were afraid to go home to their parents.

Ferry had been earlier convicted in a District Court in Donegal for two incidents of indecent assault at the same school in 1985 and 1986. He was registered as a sex offender and received a six-month suspended sentence.

Garda Denise Casserly told Ms Patricia McLaughlin BL, prosecuting, that Ferry was not identified in the local papers at the time and he returned to work in the same school where he went on to abuse the boys four years later.

Victim impact statements

Each of the men, now aged between 24 and 30 years old, stated in victim impact statements before the court that they had turned to alcohol, drug and solvent abuse to escape from the reality of their situation.

Some of them stated that they had tried to take their own lives, with one young man saying that he had deliberately crashed his car and later his motorbike into a wall because “I just wanted to leave this world because I thought it was so cruel”.

Gda Casserly said Ferry was a caretaker in a summer school in the area but that he worked in the building all year round. The local boys would regularly go to the school to play football and hang around where he would invite them in to have tea and give them alcohol and cigarettes.

She said Ferry was arrested in June 2010 after one of the victims reported the abuse to his GP the previous month. An incident room was then set up in the local garda station.

Ferry admitted the offences and said he had shown the teenagers pornography “to get them in the mood”. He told gardaí he was sorry he ever set foot in the place "because there were temptations".

He asked gardaí why the boys had not come forward earlier or had told him to stop. He said he would plead guilty to the charges because he wanted “closure” for the victims and their families.

Mr Desmond Murphy SC, defending, told Mr Justice Carney that his client expressed his regret and asked for forgiveness but did not expect to get it.

He said he had studied for the priesthood but there was “a disagreeable event” and he left college without his degree.

Mr Murphy said Ferry never set out to hurt anyone and told gardai in interview that there was no logic to his actions.

“He made the wrong choice which led him into this descent into evil,” Mr Murphy said.

One man took the stand to read his victim impact statement to the court. He described being through a nightmare and said no matter how fast he tried to run that nightmare would follow him.

He described Ferry as “a demon” and said he took away his soul after he “groomed me as a 12-year-old boy until he had me where he wanted me”.

“My mother lost her child. My father lost his son. I lay there crying as he whispered in my ear the words ‘don’t worry it will be over soon’,” the man told the court.

He said no doctor could give him a pill to take away the memories and he said his family could not understand why he was so depressed.

“I could never relax. I was always on the edge,” he said before he added that he made four suicide attempts as a teenager.

He said the only person he could have told was his father, but he died when he was still a younger teenager and he never got the chance to tell him.

He told Ms McLaughlin that he turned to drink and drugs and described them as his friends. He said he could not control his temper and rage and “turned into a monster”.

“I had a breakdown and came forward. My mother’s eyes filled with tears when I told her,” the man said. He told the court that his family had always questioned his behaviour and when he disclosed the abuse “the missing piece to the jigsaw was revealed”.

He described the abuse as taking over his life but said it was over now. “Now my life can begin." he said.

The second victim stated that the abuse took his innocence away and he turned to drugs. He said he wanted to die.

He said he just could not understand how anyone could abuse a child like that. He was hoping that he could now get on with his life “as best as I can”.

The third man said the abuse was “like being pounced upon by a wild animal who overpowered me”.

He said he felt like he lost part of his soul and he has since felt vulnerable at various stages of his life.

He told the court that he started sniffing solvents as a young teenager “to get away” and described two different incidents of crashing his motorbike and his car into a wall.

He said he regularly goes to the mountains where he can scream and feels exercise and meditation are good ways of controlling his rage.

The man said he has since moved to another area and “things are starting to get better for me, day by day”.

The fourth man said in his victim impact statement that his teenage years were very difficult for him. He blamed himself for the abuse and felt guilty.

He now has a child of his own whom he is very protective of. He said his wife told him he was distant with their daughter and added that the little girl told her mother “Daddy doesn’t give tight hugs”.