School principal ‘robbed childhood’ of his 11 victims

A retired 80-year-old school principal stole the youth of his victims and robbed them of their childhood when sexually abusing them over a 21-year period, a judge has said.

Judge Gerald Keys made his comments at Ennis Circuit Court when sentencing Patrick Barry, Well Road, Kilkee, to 11 years in jail for the sexual assault of 11 schoolgirls at Moyasta national school between 1964 and 1985.

Judge Keys sentenced Barry to one year for each of the victims. The girls were aged between nine and 13 when the abuse took place. Now middle-aged women, they hugged each other and wept openly at the back of the courtroom yesterday after the sentence was imposed on their former headmaster.

The judge said he would suspend the final five years of the sentence in light of Barry’s age and health.

In court, one of the victims described Barry as a vicious wolf lying in wait for her every day who “terrorised and abused me for daily for years”.

Judge Keys, in his judgment, said Barry held a position of trust as school principal of Moyasta national school and “you abused the girls for your own sexual satisfaction over a long period of time”.

He said Barry “has shown no remorse whatsoever”. Barry had taken “the innocence of these young children in your pursuit of personal satisfaction. You have done so heedless and uncaring for the consequences for your victims.

“You undermined their trust in adults, stole their youth and trust and robbed them of their childhood.”

Barry was found guilty of 59 counts of sexual assault after a nine-day trial in Ennis in July and was on bail until yesterday’s hearing.

“Throughout the trial, you have maintained through your counsel that all the allegations of sexual assault made by each of the 11 complainants were untrue, false and untrustworthy and a distortion of the truth,” Judge Keys said.

“It was also put to each of the complainants that their memory was impaired and their evidence was unreliable, exaggerated, unrealistic and untrue. The jury rejected all of these contentions on all 59 counts.

“Despite the verdict of the jury, you have shown no remorse for your wrongdoing or apologies to any of your victims.”

Judge Keys said Barry had abused his position as principal and had “permanently scarred the lives of 11 pupils”.

“It is clear that their childhood memories have been completely overshadowed by your actions,” he said.

Another aggravating factor was that the abuse took place in the classroom at Moyasta.

Judge Keys said that the only mitigating factors he could see in Barry’s favour was that he had no previous convictions and was at a low risk of reoffending.

Outside court, one woman said: “This man showed no remorse, he never made any gesture of any sorrowfulness or any regret for what he had done and for that I could never forgive him.

“It has been an awful long journey for all of us and today is definitely justice for us. This man is a full-blown paedophile.”