A JUDGE has questioned how a Donegal school caretaker was allowed to keep his job despite a conviction for sexually assaulting a pupil. Michael Ferry (55) raped and sexually assaulted four more boys at the same school, for which he was yesterday given an 18-year prison sentence with the last four years suspended.
Mr Justice Paul Carney said it “must have been known to the local gardaí and presumably the school authorities” that Ferry had a conviction for a similar offence, yet he continued working at the school.
“A disturbing feature of this case is that the outrages perpetrated in the school predate and postdate the sexual assault of a pupil in the same school for which he was placed on the sex offenders’ register for five years,” he said.
“Despite the fact that he pleaded guilty to sexual assault in 2002 he remained working in the school to continue to engage in the stalking and grooming with which we are concerned with today.”
The abuse happened at Ard Scoil Mhuire in Derrybeg, a former school building that is used for Irish language courses in summer. The boys were not pupils at the school but used to go there to play football and hang around, the court was told.
The Government’s special rapporteur on child protection, Geoffrey Shannon, said there was an urgent need to introduce a legal duty on State authorities to share information relating to child protection.
He said Children First guidelines on child protection concerns must be placed on a statutory basis. “This mandatory sharing of information on child protection would create a statutory obligation mandating the reporting of child abuse or suspected child abuse on threat of a penalty.”
Ferry, from Bunbeg, Gweedore, Co Donegal, pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to 38 sample charges, which included 17 oral and anal rapes, 18 sex assaults, one indecent assault and two charges of production of child pornography on dates between July 1st, 1990 and September 31st, 2005.
He groomed the boys by supplying them with alcohol, cigarettes and money. He would also make them watch pornography with him. Mr Justice Carney took into account Ferry’s guilty plea and “genuine remorse” but noted he had abused a position of trust and engaged in the “systematic grooming of the boys”.
One of the four men, who are now aged between 24 and 30, waived his right to anonymity. In a statement outside the court Derek Mulligan described Ferry as a “demon” and said “he has no remorse whatsoever for what he has done. His only remorse is being caught.”
He asked why Ferry continued to be employed when he was brought to court in 2002. Mr Justice Carney ordered Ferry be registered as a sex offender and that he never have contact with his victims again.