Blackrock school principal jailed for indecent assault

This article contains depictions of sexual abuse involving minors that some readers may find distressing. Reader discretion is advised.

By Eimear Dodd and Niamh O’Donoghue

A former school principal convicted of the indecent assault of six boys over a 30-year period has been jailed for four years for some of these offences. 

Aidan Clohessy (85) was convicted of 19 counts of indecent assault following two separate trials at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court last month.

Imposing sentence in the first case against him on Monday,, Judge Elva Duffy said Clohessy was “living a life full of good deeds during the day”, but was also “an ogre” who carried out “what can only be described as atrocities at night time, when no one could see that behaviour”.

Clohessy was the principal of St Augustine’s School, Blackrock, Co. Dublin from the early 1970s until 1993. The six boys were all pupils of the school. Some were boarders at the school, which catered for boys with mild to moderate learning disability at that time.

The boys were aged between 10 and 13 when Clohessy’s offending took place. The abuse primarily took the form of inappropriate touching, the court heard.

In the first trial, Clohessy, with an address at the Hospitaller Order of St John of God, Granada, Stillorgan, Co. Dublin, was convicted of 14 counts of indecent assault – 10 in relation to one boy and four in relation to a second boy on dates between 1983 and 1985.

On Monday, he was handed a global sentence of four years in relation to the offending against these two injured parties.

Judge Duffy noted Clohessy’s age and health would make custody more challenging for him.

The jury in the second trial returned guilty verdicts on five counts of indecent assault – two for one boy, and one count each in relation to three other boys. All this offending took place between 1969 and 1986. Clohessy was acquitted of three further counts of indecent assault.

Having heard evidence in this case, Judge Martin Nolan adjourned the case overnight to consider sentence.

Victim impact statements were read to the court on behalf of all six injured parties. They outlined how the abuse affected their mental health, relationships, education and later employment opportunities.

One man said: “Brother Aidan, I don’t forgive you but I don’t judge you anymore. That responsibility does not belong to me.

“One day, you will stand before the man you chose to serve. One day, you will stand before your maker, and on that day, you will be handed your judgement.”

Another said he struggled to learn his wedding vows or to read his children a story.

Clohessy was interviewed voluntarily by gardai and denied wrongdoing. He acknowledged that corporal punishment was used in the school including by him. Clohessy told gardai this included striking boys on their bare buttocks, but said this was only for the most serious offences and only of those boys who were residents at the school.

The investigating gardai agreed with Ronan Kennedy SC, defending, that his client was co-operative during the investigation.

The garda further agreed that Clohessy has been the subject of adverse media publicity.

Mr Kennedy told the court his client will not be appealing the jury’s decision in either trial.

Clohessy is originally from Co. Limerick and entered the religious order after completing his Leaving Certificate in 1958. He initially trained as a psychiatric nurse and after some years working in this area, retrained as a teacher.

Clohessy started work at St Augustine’s School in 1969, becoming principal in the mid 1970s.

Mr Kennedy said his client served in roles on the provisional leadership team and was appointed in 1993 to lead a mission in Malawi to develop mental health services there where he remained until 2013 when he returned to Ireland.

Mr Kennedy said Clohessy lives “a humble and quiet existence” and supports other members of the religious community who have significant health issues.

A medical report and two testimonials were handed to the court on Clohessy’s behalf.

Mr Kennedy asked the court to take into account his client will find custody more difficult due to his age and health issues.

He submitted that his client would have to live with the stigma of being a sex offender and has already been subject to negative publicity. “In many respects, he was already condemned and judged in the court of public opinion before he was ever tried in this court,” Mr Kennedy said.

An investigating garda outlined the evidence of the first trial to the court. The first boy was aged around 10 when he went to St Augustine’s School in 1973.

In the first incident, the boy, who was a boarder, had returned to the chalet and was making a sandwich when he heard the front door open. He knew it was Clohessy.

Clohessy called the boy “demon” and said he had to get the demon out of him.

The boy was taken to a room, where Clohessy slapped him on his bare buttocks and touched his testicles.

The court heard there were other similar incidents including occasions when the boy felt something wet on the small of his back.

On one occasion, the boy felt something in his buttocks, didn’t know what it was, but knew Clohessy had done it. The court heard there is no suggestion that this was an object.

The abuse ended when the boy was around 11 or 12.

A victim impact statement was read to the court by the injured party’s wife.

He said the pain “imposed on me as a child has never truly gone away” and has “shaped every part of what I became”.

He developed trust issues and has had feelings of shame, confusion and fear.

He said the trial brought a lot of that fear and trauma back to the surface. “It was like being haunted by the ghost of your own life,” he said.

The man said the abuse took away his childhood and “stole my future” as he could not learn like other children and left school with limited literacy skills.

He said he struggled to find work to support his family, and they had experienced financial pressures.

Addressing Clohessy directly, he said: “Brother Aidan, I don’t forgive you but I don’t judge you anymore. That responsibility does not belong to me.

“One day, you will stand before the man you chose to serve. One day, you will stand before your maker, and on that day you will be handed your judgement.”

A second boy, who was also a boarder at the school, was around 11 when the first incident took place. He was in a changing area after he had taken part in a swimming race when Clohessy came in.

Clohessy told the boy “I told you to win the next time” and touched the boy, who was getting changed, in his genital area.

In a separate incident on the same day, Clohessy called the boy over while walking past the chalets and touched him inappropriately. Clohessy put his finger to his lips in a shushing motion.

The boy was in Clohessy’s office on another occasion when the principal told the boy to take down his clothing. The boy refused to remove his underwear and Clohessy pulled it down.

The boy felt something hard on his buttocks, then something wet. The boy dried himself off and asked Clohessy why, but didn’t get an answer.

Clohessy put his finger to his lips in a shushing motion and said something like “son, no one knows”.

The court also heard evidence about another incident in a storage area of the gym building where Clohessy touched the boy inappropriately.

Clohessy said to him: “Son, I hope no one knows”.

In a victim impact statement he said the abuse impacted his education, his mental health and his later employment.

Imposing sentence, Judge Duffy said the age of the injured parties and that the offending took place on multiple occasions, were aggravating features.

The judge noted the contents of both victim impact statements. She said these were “vulnerable children” who had been entrusted to Clohessy’s care.

Judge Duffy noted the defence had indicated there would be no appeal and she expressed the court’s hope that this might offer some peace for the two injured parties in moving forward.

The judge said she had read the testimonials and acknowledged that while Clohessy has “good elements”, this offending took place “in total secrecy”.

She said she would impose two separate sentences of two years, to run consecutively.

Detective Garda Rachel Kiernan outlined the evidence from the second trial to Eoghan Cole SC, prosecuting.

The first boy recalled Clohessy coming into a shower room of the dormitory and telling boys to get into their birthday suits on one occasion.

He was around 11 or 12 when Clohessy hit him on the bare buttocks several times in a storage area of the gym building.

In a victim impact statement, he said his childhood was taken away and he lived in a constant state of anxiety – unable to focus on his school work.

He said he struggled with feelings of low self-confidence and self-worth. He said he wanted others to understand the damage caused by this type of abuse.

His daughter also contributed to the statement, saying she now understood why he could not help them with school work. She said her father had refused to allow the abuse to define his life.

The second boy was approximately 12 when he was touched inappropriately on his bare buttocks by Clohessy in the same storage room on a separate occasion.

A victim impact statement outlined that he is unable to quantify the potential loss of earnings due to the effect on his education.

He said he was unable to learn his marriage vows or read a story to his children. He outlined feelings of inadequacy, anger management issues and finding it difficult to find work to support his family.

A third boy was in Clohessy’s office, when the principal put him over his knee then smacked his bare buttocks.

The boy, who was aged between 10 and 13, was then told to kneel near a religious statue and turned around when he heard a noise behind him. He saw Clohessy fixing his clothing, who told him: “I didn’t tell you to turn around”.

In his victim impact statement, he said the abuse affected his ability to form relationships, and led to depression, flashbacks and insomnia.

He hoped the statement showed the “depth of my suffering” and the “lifelong irrevocable damage” he suffered at the hands of Clohessy.

A fourth boy said when he was about 10 years old he was using the shower area of the gym after taking part in sports when Clohessy touched his bare buttocks. He said this happened twice and Clohessy had no reason to be there.

In his victim impact statement, he said he told his mother about the abuse a few years ago. He said he is now receiving counselling and sometimes gets flashbacks of what happened.

He added that he hopes his future will be “a lot brighter”.