A FORMER Marist Brother and primary school teacher has been convicted by a Dublin Circuit Criminal Court jury of 35 charges of sexually abusing four boys at a school more than 40 years ago.
Christopher Cosgrove (66) of Cloughreevagh, Ballyhaunis Road, Claremorris, Co Mayo, had pleaded not guilty to 55 charges of indecent assault at the Sligo school on dates between July 1st, 1968, and June 30th, 1977.
He had denied 14 charges in relation to the first two complainants, nine charges in relation to a third, 17 charges in relation to a fourth complainant and one charge in relation to another boy.
Judge Patrick McCartan had withdrawn 20 charges from the jury last Friday which involved one charge in relation to the first complainant, all charges in relation to the second man and five charges in relation to the third complainant.
The jury took 7½ hours to return unanimous verdicts on the remaining 35 charges on day six of the trial.
The judge remanded Cosgrove on continuing bail to a date next May for sentence.
Cosgrove had previously been convicted of the sexual assault of these boys in Sligo Circuit Criminal Court. But that conviction was later overturned in the Court of Criminal Appeal.
During the trial one complainant told the court that Cosgrove would regularly call him up to the top of the class, rub his legs, place his hand inside his shorts and fondle his “private parts”.
He said Cosgrove would call him up to stand beside the teacher’s desk, or make him sit on his lap, “before he held me close to his body and close to his face”.
The witness told the jury that Cosgrove would then either play with his penis or his back passage.
He told the court that Cosgrove would sometimes rub his face against his. He said he could still remember Cosgrove’s stubble and smell of his body odour.
The man said he could also remember the second complainant being called up to the desk almost as much as himself. And he could specifically remember this boy as he sat next to him in class.
He recalled that the accused wore a cloak “which he would sometimes use to cover me with to interfere with me”.
Another witness said that Cosgrove’s class was “mayhem and madness with canings and beatings”.
He said if he wept after a canning, he would be taken to Cosgrove’s desk where he would rub his knee and rub his face up and down on his own face.
The witness said the accused would rub above and below his knee and up to his backside and around it. He described the incidents as occurring on a daily basis.
Another man said he was often brought up to the teacher’s desk and one time Cosgrove asked him for a kiss. He said on another occasion the accused wrapped himself around him and put his hands down his trousers