A man in his thirties has told a jury he was more afraid of the lay teacher whom he alleges indecently assaulted him than he was of the Marist Brothers who beat him at a Sligo primary school in the 1970s.
Patrick Curran (59), a teacher at St John’s National School, Temple Street, Sligo since July 1966, is on trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court accused of the indecent assault of ten different primary school boys at the school over an 18 year period.
Mr Curran has pleaded not guilty to 237 counts of indecent assault between September 1966 and June 1984.
The man told Mr Enna Mulloy SC, prosecuting, that he avoided the accused in the playground and was afraid of the Brothers but "most afraid of this guy, more afraid of that than of getting a beating, more uncomfortable being around him".
He told Mr Mulloy that Mr Curran would regularly sit beside him while correcting his work and squeeze and caress his knee, moving up his leg to his penis.
The witness said the incidents occurred on a regular basis "sometimes weekly, sometimes more" over the two years he attended the school between the ages of eight and ten.
He denied under cross examination by Ms Grainne McMorrow SC, defending, that it was "bizarre" that he did not tell a family member what he alleges Mr Curran was doing to him.
The trial continues before Judge Michael White and a jury of ten men and two women.