A survivor of indecent assault perpetrated by a former school principal has said the prinicipal took away his childhood.
Eighty-five-year-old former school prinicipal Aidan Clohessy was convicted of 19 counts of indecent assault following two separate trials at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court last month.
Yesterday, he was sentenced to four years in jail for offences against two of the six boys. Today, Judge Martin Nolan imposed a consecutive sentence of 16 months for offences against the remaining four.
In a victim impact statement, one of the survivors, Patsy Carville, 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.
Judge Nolan said the law in place at the time of the offending against three of the four provided for a maximum sentence of two years for indecent assault and ten years in the case of the fourth complainant.
Judge Nolan said he took into account the seriousness of the assaults and the effect it had on the victims.
An aggravating factor was that he was in a position of trust at the time and had taken advantage of the boys' vulnerability.
He said he also had to take into account Aidan Clohessy's age and personal circumstances and the totality principle when imposing sentence.
Survivor encourages other victims to come forward
After today's sentence, another one of the survivors Gerry Quinn said he would like to thank everyone involved in the case adding that it had been "a long road and we are delighted with the outcome and we just hope this will give encouragement for other victims to come forward".
In his victim impact statement to the court yesterday, Mr Quinn 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."
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 which catered for boys with mild to moderate learning disability at that time.
Some of the boys were boarders and were aged between ten and 13 when they were abused. They were made to remove their clothes while they were assaulted by Clohessy.
Imposing sentence yesterday in the first case, 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".
Additional reporting by CCC News agency
