By Eimear Dodd
A former school teacher and convicted rapist has been told he will spend another five years in jail after being convicted of indecently assaulting eight boys.
The 73-year-old man was convicted of 118 counts of indecent assault against eight boys between 1977 and 1984 following a trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
The man was a teacher at a religious-run primary school in Dublin from the early 1970s to the late 1990s.
He has 128 previous convictions, including 127 for indecent or sexual assault.
The majority of his previous convictions relate to offences against five boys who were pupils at the same school.
The man also has a conviction for the rape of a teenage girl.
He is currently serving a sentence of 14 years and five months and had an earliest release date in August 2025.
Detective Garda Kevin O’Shaughnessy previously gave evidence that the eight boys were aged between six and 14 at the time that they were sexually abused by the man.
The abuse primarily took the form of inappropriate touching, but in the case of one boy, it escalated to include masturbation and oral sex.
The man took some of the boys for trips in his car to locations including nearby lakes and mountains.
The abuse took place in various locations including the school, his then-home address and in his car.
Some of the boys thought the man was a part-time or undercover garda because he had a siren and other equipment in his car.
The man continues to maintains his innocence and denies any wrongdoing.
Imposing sentence yesterday, Judge Orla Crowe said the man engaged in “manipulative, exploitative and pre-mediated behaviour” towards the victims.
She said his offending was “determined, persistent” and “highly predatory in its nature”.
The court previously heard that one victim initially made a complaint to gardai in 1995, but at the time the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) instructed no prosecution should take place.
In his victim impact statement, this complainant said it had “taken 30 years to get the chance to tell you how this man affected my life in every way”.
He also questioned how the man’s abuse was allowed to continue, and said “shame on you all” in reference to the school at that time.
Another victim, who was forced to masturbate and perform oral sex on the man, said in his impact statement: “I will never know if I lived up to my true potential because of him.”
Other victim impact statements outlined the lifelong effects of the abuse, including on the men’s education and relationships.
One victim said he felt there had been a “systemic cover-up” of the abuse by other staff at the school, with another saying he felt let down by the school as a child.
Two of the victims talked about the abuse while still in the school. They were physically disciplined and told by members of the religious order which ran the school not to lie.
Judge Crowe noted the profound impact of the offending on the victims. She commended the victims’ “courage and dignity”.
The judge said the court was conscious that “sentencing can’t undo the hurt or the wrongs done to the children they were”.
She told the victims that “ they have been heard, they have stood up for the children they were, they have been believed and the defendant held to account”.
She said the man breached the trust of the victims and their families, committing an “egregious violation” of their childhood and bodily integrity.
Judge Crowe said the children were “entrusted to his care for their education”.
She also noted that the man engaged in grooming behaviour and some of the abuse “happened with impunity in a classroom full of children”.
The judge said the man committed a “very serious spate of offending” against “innocent children”, which had to be marked with a “considerable sentence”.
She set a global headline sentence of 10 years and said in “ordinary circumstances”, the court would be inclined to impose an effective sentence of eight and half years.
Judge Crowe said the court had to take into account the mitigation, including the man’s age, health issues and that he is serving other sentences.
The judge said in the particular circumstances of this case, the court would impose a sentence of five years, effective from August 2025 when the sentence the man is currently serving expires.
The court previously heard that gardai interviewed the man in relation to allegations made by the complainants and he denied the allegations.
The man agreed that he’d taught at the school and may have brought some pupils in his car to sporting events.
He denied having students in his house and asserted that he had no recollection of some of the complainants.
Det Gda O’Shaughnessy agreed with Philipp Rahn SC, defending, that there was a similar pattern of offending to the vast majority of his client’s convictions.
Mr Rahn asked the court to take into account his client’s age and health issues.
A medical report was handed to the court along with a positive governor’s report.
The man is married and has two adult children.
Mr Rahn asked the court to consider the principles of totality and proportionality and to construct an appropriate global sentence that reflects the overall offending.