A FORMER Christian Brother who indecently assaulted 19 young boys at a national school in Limerick in the 1960s has been jailed for two years.Seán John Drummond, with an address at Broadford Drive, Ballinteer, Dublin, had his name placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register last June after he pleaded guilty to 36 separate charges arising out of incidents involving boys as young as seven.
The 61-year-old admitted indecently assaulting 19 boys at Creagh Lane national school, Bridge Street, Limerick, on dates unknown between July 1st, 1967, and July 31st, 1968.
One of the assaults happened at the Féile Luimnigh festival at a city theatre on an unknown date between July 1st, 1968, and July 31st, 1969.
Evidence was heard at Limerick Circuit Court last month that most of the offences took place behind a teacher’s desk at the top of the class when Drummond was teaching boys, aged between seven and 10, in second class.
The court heard one of the boys told his father about what had happened, and that after the father alerted the school the former Christian Brother was moved to a more senior class and then on to another school in August 1969.
Drummond, who had since married and has five grown-up children, left the religious order in March 1970. A complaint about the abuse was first made to gardaí in 2002 and all 55 pupils from the class were subsequently contacted, the court heard.
In their statements to gardaí, the 19 injured parties claimed Drummond had touched their private parts a number of times while he was their second-class teacher.
Two of the victims told gardaí that Drummond, who was 19 at the time, used to drop a coin inside their clothing so he would have an opportunity to touch them.
Judge Carroll Moran heard details of victim impact statements in which a number of the injured parties described suffering from alcohol, drug, marriage and learning difficulties since their childhood as a result of the abuse.
Before imposing sentence yesterday, Judge Moran said he was satisfied the abuse had a “traumatic effect on young boys who were at an impressionable and young age”.
The judge said that although the accused was a young man when he committed the offences, he was in a position of trust and had abused that “duty of trust”.
Judge Moran acknowledged that, at 19, Drummond was not very mature and at the time he was living in the environment of a religious order where there was inadequate schooling in matters of sexuality.
Fergal Rooney, senior psychologist at the Granada Institute, previously told the court Drummond was 14 when he joined the Christian Brothers, and at 16 was introduced to the practice of self-flagellation and to public confession. Mr Rooney said he had carried out a psychological risk assessment of the accused, whom he said was in the low-range risk of reoffending.
Judge Moran noted yesterday that Drummond, a retired UCD librarian, had led a decent life since these “awful events”, which were of great antiquity.
Judge Moran said that if the case had been heard in the 1970s, it is likely a more lenient sentence would have been imposed than today. The judge said he had to give regard to the fact, however, that there were multiple victims and that the abuse had occurred over a continuous period.
Judge Moran warned some of the victims present that they were in danger of being in contempt of court after they burst into applause as Drummond was led out of the courtroom.
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