Former principal of Christian Brothers’ school jailed for four years for sexually abusing pupil in 1980s

A former principal of the Christian Brothers’ school on Dublin’s Westland Row has been sentenced to four years for the sexual abuse of a student.

Judge Pauline Codd said the duration of the abuse – which started during the victim’s first year in the school and continued until a few months short of him sitting the Leaving Cert – was among the aggravating factors she was taking into account when deciding on the sentence for Paul Hendrick.

The 75 year old, a member of the Christian Brothers with an address at Croftwood Grove, Ballyfermot, pleaded guilty to the abuse earlier this year. The judge said she was suspending the final six months of the sentence on the condition that Hendrick continued attending counselling.

The victim of the abuse, Kenneth Grace, waived his right to anonymity so that Hendrick could be named and reporting restrictions on the case could be lifted. He was just 13 in 1980 when the abuse began, with Hendrick taking him to a windowless furnace room in the school where he encouraged the boy to wrestle with him and engage in pull-ups on an iron bar.

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During the wrestling, Hendrick would restrain the boy and push himself against his back. Mr Grace told the court of being able to feel Hendrick pushing his penis against him. The abuse later escalated, with Hendrick and his victim stripping to their underwear and Hendrick getting the teenager to whip him. Hendrick also whipped his victim, which left welts on the boy’s back. Mr Grace’s father died when he was young and he was afraid to tell anyone what was happening, the court heard.

Isolated from others

Abuse also took place in a reception room in the school and later during school holidays when Mr Grace was brought on camping trips to a farm in Co Tipperary owned by the congregation and a residence in Clonmel.

In his victim impact statement, the judge noted, Mr Grace said he was a shy boy who had not made many friends at school. He felt that Hendrick worked to isolate him from other boys during his time at the school. Hendrick gave him sweets and later gave him cigarettes and taught him how to drive. The abuse ended when Mr Grace grew strong enough to fight back and better understood what was happening, the judge noted.

Judge Codd praised the eloquence and courage which Mr Grace displayed in the case and in his victim impact statement.

Mr Grace, she said, had suffered greatly because of the abuse and grooming that was inflicted on him during his school years by a person who was in a position of power. She said she hoped the love and affection of his wife and family would help to sustain Mr Grace in the years ahead.

In outlining the reasoning behind her sentence, the judge noted that the abuse was inflicted by an adult on a child, the breach of trust involved, the position of power held by Hendrick, the duration of the abuse and the grooming. The entirety of the victim’s secondary school experience had been blighted, she said.

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In terms of mitigation, she mentioned Hendrick guilty plea, his “prosocial work” during his life, his lack of any previous convictions, his age and the fact that he had expressed his “deep remorse” for what happened.

Felt shame

A report from a therapist who was seeing Hendrick stated that the accused felt shame about what he had done and had “a poor understanding of sex and relationship matters at the time of the offending”. He had been an “emotionally immature” man at the time. This might have been due to his entering religious life at a young age, the judge noted.

Hendrick joined the congregation at the age of 14 and his life experience was framed by this and the culture of the time in which the offences occurred. He had now suffered a “significant loss of reputation and a significant fall from grace”, she said.

Judge Codd said she had received references from others about their positive experience of Hendrick during their years in the school. There were also positive comments from people who suffered addiction and their families as Hendrick set up a centre off Pearse Street in the 1990s that worked with disadvantaged young people. Hendrick was also well-regarded within the Christian Brothers community, she said. His name will now go on the sex offenders’ register.

Hendrick sat looking directly at the judge while she read out her sentencing decision, while Mr Grace sat with supporters at the back of the court.