A former maths teacher at a private primary school run by the Spiritan order of priests in South Dublin will be sentenced next week for indecently assaulting eight young boys in the 1970s and 1980s.
Peter Kelly who is 73 and was a maths teacher at Willow Park school in Blackrock for almost thirty years, was found guilty by a jury earlier this year of 28 counts of indecent assault.
One victim told the court, Kelly was "one cog in a machine of systematic abuse" at Willow Park, and secondary school, Blackrock College.
Peter Kelly began teaching at Willow Park Primary school in 1977. He resigned in 2004 after an investigation following a complaint made in 2001. The DPP decided not to prosecute him at that stage.
Earlier this year however, he went on trial at the Circuit Criminal Court, charged with 28 counts of indecent assault against eight boys. All the boys were aged between around 10 and 13 years old when the assaults took place. Some of the offences took place in the classroom, some in changing rooms.
Kelly denied the charges but was found guilty by a jury last month. The court heard he doesn't accept the jury's verdicts.
Many of the boys gave evidence that Kelly wore a black gown and would put boys under his gown and cuddle and fondle them - something he referred to as "the Muppet show".
He would also tickle boys, calling it "death by tickles", slap them, bounce them on his crotch and touch their genital areas or make them touch his.
The boys also gave evidence of physical punishment, although this did not form part of the charges against Kelly. However the prosecution case was that he used physical and sexual violence to demean the boys in his class.
The boys are now men in their fifties and the court heard emotional and moving victim impact statements from all eight of them. Some of the men read their own statements, some were read by investigating garda inspector Rachel Kilpatrick.
Most of the men described suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. Some had struggled with addiction and lived with self doubt, fear, depression and anxiety.
The first man to give his victim impact statement told the court he had been a normal child who enjoyed life to the full and had lots of friends. He said he had loved sports and loved playing marbles and he remembered laughing with friends and laughing with his mother. But he said all that disappeared the moment Kelly touched him for the first time.
The man said Kelly eroded his normal life into doubt and fear. He said his whole life became insufferable. He said he knew it was wrong and knew he didn't want Kelly near him, but he couldn't get away from him.
The man described turning in on himself, he said he was terrified and Kelly made it impossible to be normal. He learned how to exist rather than how to live. From the moment he opened his eyes in the morning until he went to sleep at night, he said he was constantly wondering what he could do make sure Kelly wouldn't notice him so he wouldn't touch him.
Although he tried to be good, silent and quiet and do his homework, he said Kelly always got him in the end. On one occasion, he described faking a serious accident so he wouldn't have to go to school and his relief when he was taken to hospital.
The man described the damage done to him as irreparable and said his life would have been completely different if the abuse hadn't happened.
He gave up sports and dropped out of school early. He said he was floored when he found out others had been abused but he always felt it couldn't just have been him. The man told the court he had always hated himself for letting Kelly beat him mentally but only now could he see that he never stood a chance at 11 years old.
Another man described the severe impact the abuse had had on his physical and mental health. He said his health had deteriorated and his ability to work had been affected. He too had been diagnosed with PTSD and he said his symptoms had placed a tremendous strain on his family and on his marriage.
This man told the prosecuting counsel, John Griffin, that Kelly had worked in an institution which "tolerated widespread physical and mental abuse in Willow Park and Blackrock College". He said 37 sexual abusers had been identified in both schools and Kelly was just "one cog in a machine of systematic abuse". "We as children, had no chance," he said.
A third victim of Kelly's abuse told the court he had already been broken by abuse carried out against him by another teacher, Edward Baylor, who has since died. He said Kelly, instead of supporting him as a vulnerable person, took advantage of his vulnerability and added to his pain. He said Kelly's abuse reinforced his shame and intensified his sense that there was no escape. This man told the court he had lived with pain and damage ever since, and the loss of what his life should have been.
He said he was desperate to be invisible at school, his grades plummeted and his future changed course. He left Ireland as a young man, he told the court, and now feels he needs to leave again as it is too painful to stay here.
This man broke down as he told the court he felt useless and that he was "never getting out of this". He said it had taken him years to be able to speak about it and that he was "so very, very tired". He told Kelly he hoped he was being made to confront what he had done.
Other victims also wrote of feeling terrified of Kelly and of suffering from depression and anxiety later in life.
Defence counsel, Andrew Sexton told the court Kelly's entire life had centred around Willow Park and Blackrock College until he resigned in 2004. He said he had medical and physical issues of significance and his health was deteriorating. He has no other convictions.
Judge Elma Sheahan said it had been a very difficult morning for victims and she needed time to consider all she had heard. She said she would sentence Kelly next week and remanded him in custody in the meantime.
