A BROTHER of the De La Salle order has gone on trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court accused of abusing a former resident at a children’s institution for young offenders over 20 years ago.
The 56-year-old man has pleaded not guilty to three counts of indecent assault, one count of buggery and one count of gross indecency against the then 12-year-old complainant at the institution on dates unknown between March 1st, 1985 and September 2nd, 1986.
Eanna Mulloy SC (with Colm Ó Briain) in opening the trial told the jury the Brother was a care worker at the residential children’s care centre, where a number of boys were sent by the courts.
Mr Mulloy said that when the complainant was sent to the centre by courts in 1984 it was because he had got into trouble with the law, was missing school, came from a difficult background and was generally not doing well.
He said the boy was originally sent to the home for a year but for various reasons, including several incidents of absconding, he was kept on for another year after that and released in 1986.
Mr Mulloy said the now 36-year-old man has had a troubled life since then and asked the jury to keep an open mind in all aspects of the case. He said the man accepted that he had received a good education in the home and apart from these incidents had been well treated.
The complainant was first sent to an assessment centre for a number of weeks after coming before the courts and was then committed in September 1984 for one year to the residential care home where the abuse took place.
Mr Mulloy said the first number of months at the centre passed without incident, but one evening he heard the squeak of a handle coming into his dormitory and he was roused from his bed by the accused, who brought him down to his own room.
Mr Mulloy said the man alleges the accused then indecently assaulted him by putting his hands into his pyjama bottoms. He said it was the prosecution’s case that there was a second similar incident in the shower room of a swimming pool.
He said that on another occasion the boys were brought out on a trip in a minibus and on their return the complainant would say he was summoned to the accused’s room, where he claims he was sexually assaulted.
He said the accused was interviewed by gardaí in July 1999 about the allegations when they came to light.
The trial continues before Judge Frank O’Donnell and a jury of nine men and three women.