Teacher held ‘mock trial’ and assaulted pupil, court told

A school teacher made a young boy stand inside a make shift “dock” where he indecently assaulted him at the top of the classroom, a court has heard.

The evidence was heard at Limerick Circuit Court in the trial of a 73-year-old retired national school teacher who denies 78 counts of indecent assault against 13 boys.

The offences are alleged to have occurred over a three-year period at a national school in the Limerick area on unknown dates from September 1978 to June 1981.

In his evidence one of the alleged victims, who is now 46, recalled how he was ordered to stand inside a large cardboard box at the top of the classroom during “a mock trial” after he was caught passing a note in class.

The witness told the court that the teacher asked the class what punishment he should receive and described how while standing behind him he pulled down his pants and underwear and touched his private parts.

The witness said the “make-shift dock” consisted of a cardboard box with two sides and a front and the back cut out.

He said the box was high enough at the front so the class could not see what his teacher was doing.

“I couldn’t react because I was terrified,” he told the court.

“I got slapped with leather after he was finished with the ‘so-called court case’,” he added.

Another victim said the abuse occurred during a lull period in the class when the pupils were concentrating on other class work.

He said the accused stopped beside him and placed his hand down the front of his shirt continuing “as far down as he could reach”.

During cross-examination another of the alleged victims agreed with defence counsel Andrew Sexton that he got the date of being in the accused’s class wrong, but denied that he was mistaken about the alleged abuse, even though it occurred 30 years ago.

The trial continues before Judge John Hannan and a jury of seven men and five women.