Serial abuser to be jailed for sexual assault of students

This article contains graphic references to sexual assault involving minors and references graphic depictions of said acts. Reader discretion is strongly advised.

By Declan Brennan

Convicted child abuser Patrick Harte will be sentenced next month for the repeated sexual abuse of another eight primary school boys four decades ago.

The 84-year-old was employed a teacher at Sancta Maria Christian Brothers school on Synge Street Dublin from 1967 to 2007, latterly as a principal. This fourth set of prosecutions brings to 89 his number of convictions for sexual or indecent assaults of young boys.

After a trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court last December, a jury convicted Harte of 17 counts of indecent or sexual assault committed against boys in various date ranges between 1969 and 1986. Harte, of Glendown Park, Templeogue, Dublin 6, had pleaded not guilty to all charges and continues to deny any offending.

The eight victims in this case brings to 32 the number of boys abused by Harte.

At a sentence hearing David Perry BL, prosecuting, told the court that in around 1978, one of the child victims told another teacher in the school about what Harte was doing and “nothing was done, matters were swept under the carpet”.

This victim later told gardai that Harte molested him around 40 to 50 times in that academic year when the victim was aged around 11 to 12 and in sixth class. After a year of abuse, this boy decided he’d “had enough” and told his parents he wasn’t going back to the school.

In his victim impact statement, this man said that the period of sustained abuse affected his long term mental health and he went on to struggle with alcohol addiction his entire life. He said he experienced flashbacks and had trouble trusting people.

He said he had tried to put the abuse out of his mind but it negatively affected his marriage and he found he was overprotective of his young daughters.

He said that when he saw Harte’s image appear on the news, “I broke down, a grown man, seeing his face”. He said he then told his daughter that Harte had abused him.

The court heard that in the case of all the victims, Harte would find some reason to call boys up to the teacher’s desk. He would then put his hands down their trousers and into their underwear and fondle their back side and genitals.

During the trial, Harte gave sworn evidence that none of the matters alleged had ever taken place, the court heard.

Detective Garda Richie Moston told Mr Perry that Harte was convicted in March 2020 of 11 counts of indecently assaulting seven pupils at the school on dates between September 1968 and September 1970. Judge Martin Nolan imposed a three-year prison term in July 2020.

In December 2024, Harte was jailed for four years for the sexual abuse of a further eight former primary school students on dates between 1967 and 1970. Reporting restrictions were in place while his remaining trials took place.

He was convicted of 22 counts of indecent assault and one count of attempted indecent assault. The victims spoke of Harte placing his hands inside their underwear to fondle their genitals and his use of a leather strap to “wallop” students.

Harte denied the allegations. Judge Elva Duffy noted the very moving victim impact statements given by the men, who had been very young boys at the time they were abused by Harte.

Last October, after a third set of prosecutions, Judge Duffy sentenced Harte to a prison term of four and a half years for the sexual assault of nine young boys. Most of the boys were between 11 and 13 years old when abused, though one victim was abused from the age of eight to the age of 13.

John Griffin BL, defending, told the court his client does not accept the jury verdicts and that his instructions were to not enter a plea of mitigation.

Wearing an audio loop hearing aid, Harte stood from the dock to address Judge Martina Baxter. He tried to go into detail about alleged issues with the evidence of a complainant in a different trial, whom Harte was convicted of indecently assaulting.

Judge Baxter said that had nothing to do with this hearing. She adjourned finalisation of sentencing to March 18 next.

One victim told gardai that in around 1976 he was upset because his father was undergoing heart surgery. He said under the pretence of comforting him, Harte called the boy up, put his arm around the boy and fondled his backside and testicles.

The victim “stood there frozen” and couldn’t believe it was happening, Detective Garda Richie Moston testified to the court. The victim felt disgusted afterwards, the court heard.

One victim was aged between nine and 10 and in fourth class in around 1970 with Harte as his teacher. He had a stomach ache and Harte used this an excuse to rub his stomach before moving his hand into his underwear and fondling him.

On another occasion, this boy got caught in the rain and his clothes were wet. Harte pulled back the boy’s trousers and underwear exposing his bottom to the class who were laughing. Harte then used his hands to arrange newspapers around the boy’s bottom before telling him to stand beside the radiator.

This victim said that the assaults caused him to lose all trust in authority, including his parents, and led to a change in his behaviour. He said as he grew older, he felt he couldn’t tell anyone about the abuse and he couldn’t understand why a grown man would be interested in the genitalia of a child.

One victim told gardai that he was aged between nine and 11 when Harte indecently assaulted him three times between 1969 and 1971. He said he wanted it to stop but didn’t think his parents would believe him.

He said he spoke to two other boys whom Harte had called up to the desk and the three of them agreed a plan to push Harte off his chair when he was rocking back on two legs. The next time Harte called this boy up, he did this.

This victim said he was waiting for what seemed like a lifetime before the other two boys came to his defence and told the teacher to “leave him alone”. He said he didn’t recall Hart ever calling him up again after that.

Another victim told gardai that he was in Harte’s sixth class in the 1985 to ’86 school year when Harte indecently assaulted him twice by molesting his testicles. This victim, who was aged around 10 at the time, told the court that that he feels sad looking bad at what took place in the school and that “nobody cared, nobody has ever apologised”.

The sixth victim was aged around 11 in the same academic year and described how Harte would use a metre-long cane to repeatedly strike boys on the leg, back and behind. He said Harte molested him once or twice a week throughout the school year and he felt he couldn’t tell anyone.