Former St Mary’s Primary School Christian Brother, Thomas McCarry, has been jailed for sexually abusing young schoolboys in his classroom.
Thomas McCarry (66) admitted a series of sample charges of indecently assaulting four boys as young as 10 at the Mullingar school between 1984 and 1987.
McCarry, with an address at Clareville, 89A Finglas Rd, Glasnevin, Dublin, displayed no emotion as he was handed concurrent sentences of two years at Mullingar Circuit Court sitting in Tullamore on October 9 last. He will serve the sentence in Portlaoise.
Over the course of a number of sittings, the court had earlier been told that the assaults all took place during school hours while the boys were aged 10 to 11 and in fifth and sixth class.
In statements to Mullingar Gardaí, four of his victims outlined how the Belfast native would approach from behind and lean over as if to help with schoolwork, but would instead pull up his victims’ jumpers or try to reach into their trousers.
In harrowing victim impact statements, two of his former pupils revealed that they had tried to take their own lives. One man wrote his statement from a psychiatric ward after his recent suicide attempt. All told of a lack of confidence, inability to trust and problems forming relationships in later life.
Judge Tony Hunt described the effects of the abuse on the victims as “very serious”.
He acknowledged that McCarry had joined the Christian Brothers at the young age of 14. The court had been told that McCarry had deep shame and sorrow for his victims.
Sentencing Thomas McCarry, he said there was a breach of the pupil-teacher trust.
“There was a considerable breach of trust by him – a teacher in the religious profession… the offences were committed in the classroom in the presence of other children, some of whom noticed untoward events occurring.”
He said McCarry could have left his “difficult regime” if he had found it too onerous, as others had done.
SAMPLE CASES
The sample cases were drawn from a number of statements made to Mullingar detectives over the course of the last ten years.
Garda Eric Naughton told the court that the assaults came to light when one of McCarry’s victims made a statement at Mullingar Garda Station. Further statements were made, including some this year.
Each of the victims outlined how the Belfast native, McCarry, would approach them from behind and lean over them.
The victims also told the court that they were either frozen by fear or else tried to squirm and wriggle away from him. One former pupil told the court of how he had tried to tighten his belt to the limit, to try to stop McCarry from putting his hand inside his trousers.
One of the pupils said that McCarry would threaten him, saying: “I’ll frighten the life out of you,” as he began to assault him.
The victim added: “I was afraid of him.”
None of the victims told either their family or friends what was happening because they were either afraid, too shy or later blamed themselves.
IMPACT
In their victim impact statements, the victims told of how the abuse had greatly impacted on their lives.
One victim said he only ever wanted to play football and had been captain of teams at a young age, but had given up the game because Bro McCarry was in charge of underage teams.
He had never realised his potential and became withdrawn, not knowing who to trust. The “secret” had eaten away at him for 25 years, he said.
He was bitter about what he called “the Church’s sheer hypocrisy and cover-up” and felt his life had been blighted. His wife was the only person who knew what had happened to him.
In a statement read to the court, another victim told of attempting to take his own life at the age of 18.
Last month (September), he had made a second attempt on his life and had written his victim impact statement from a psychiatric ward.
He said: “I tried my best to fight the shame, depression, fear, anger.”
One of the victims went into the witness box to read his statement in person. He told the court he was still receiving psychotherapy treatment.
He said he had: “totally trusted Bro McCarry and looked up to him.”
At age 12 he had pleaded with his family to be allowed to go to boarding school.
Breaking down, he told of having to walk into shops at times when he feared someone was behind him on a street. He had trouble forming relationships and suffered from insecurity and paranoia.
Defence barrister Phillip Rahn said Mr. McCarry had deep shame and sorrow for his victims. He had undergone 15 years of psychotherapy treatment and was described as a troubled, fragile man who was remorseful.
He was now living in a very structured environment, was not allowed to have public ministry, was never to be alone with children and was constantly monitored.
He had signed up to join the Christian Brothers at 14 and had “significant emotional, sexual deficits”.
Judge Tony Hunt commented as above and noted that the offences “had horrendous consequences” for the victims as he handed down concurrent sentences for each of the four sample charges.
