Waterford coach pleads guilty to 13 sample counts of indecent assault of five boys

A former sports coach on trial for 266 counts of indecent and sexual assault will be sentenced next month after pleading guilty to 13 sample counts of indecent assault.

On the sixth day of the trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, the 72-year-old Waterford man, who can’t be named to protect the anonymity of his victims, pleaded guilty to 13 sample counts of indecently assaulting five boys in locations in Waterford on unknown dates between December 1979 and March 1990.

The man had been on trial in relation to 266 counts of indecently and sexually assaulting five boys in locations in Waterford, Cork, and Kilkenny on dates between 1978 and 1993. He initially denied any wrongdoing and entered not guilty pleas at the start of the trial.

Paul Greene SC, prosecuting, told the court on Tuesday that the pleas were acceptable to the Director of Public Prosecution on the basis of full facts being heard in evidence at sentencing. He asked the court to request victim impact statements and adjourn the case for sentencing.

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Judge Martin Nolan told the jury that it is “not unusual” for accused people to make “certain decisions” during a trial. He thanked the jurors for their service.

Judge Nolan remanded the man in custody and adjourned the case to May 22nd for sentencing.

The prosecution case had ended on Monday morning with evidence of the man’s interviews with gardaí in which he claimed one complainant was “tutored” by “other victims” so they could sue An Garda Síochána and that another complainant had fabricated his allegations.

Lawyers for the man then made a legal application to have all the charges withdrawn from the jury. After hearing the legal arguments from the defence and prosecution rebuttals, Judge Nolan said he had to look at the law as it stood in the 1980s. He noted that the “blunt instrument” of the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1935 said, “this activity was legal post-15 if there’s consent”.

Judge Nolan concluded that what the accused man did was “immoral in the eyes of the court, but not criminally illegal” and the counts relating to alleged incidents when the complainants were 15 years of age or older should not be considered by the jury.

Judge Nolan said if these alleged incidents had occurred more recently, there would be other charges, such as child grooming or exploitation, to deal with the accused man’s behaviour towards the complainants after their fifteenth birthdays.

Judge Nolan said the man’s behaviour was “grossly immoral from ten to twenty” and that he took “advantage” of the boys according to the evidence of the complainants, but he had to make an assessment on the basis of legal principles.

During the trial the jury heard evidence that the five complainants came into contact with the accused man when they were boys and teenagers in various ways, including as a sports coach and a family friend.

The jury also heard evidence that inappropriate sexual contact took place between the accused man and the boys, which included exposing his penis, fondling, masturbation, inviting him to touch them, handcuffing, urination, and defecation.