A 70-year-old Christian Brother appeared in court yesterday on more than 130 charges of sexually abusing 25 boys in a Connemara reformatory school.
Brother Maurice Tobin, North Circular Road, Dublin, was arrested yesterday morning and taken to Clifden District Court to answer charges relating to offences which are alleged to have taken place at St Joseph's Reformatory in Letterfrack, Connemara, between 1959 and 1973.
A total of 136 charges involve the alleged buggery, attempted buggery and indecent assault of 25 boys, while one other charge alleges indecent assault of a boy in a B&B in Limerick during the same period.
Attempts were made by Mr Donogh Molloy, defence solicitor, to restrict publication of Brother Tobin's name, but Judge John Garavan refused the application, saying that he had not imposed reporting restrictions in two similar cases recently.
Judge Garavan remanded Brother Tobin on his own bail of €900 and one independent surety of €2,100 to appear before the court again on May 23rd.
At the same court, a former Christian Brother who faces 15 charges of indecent assault involving three boys at the same reformatory in the 1960s was returned for trial by Judge Garavan to the next sitting of Galway Circuit Criminal Court in June.
Mr John McKenna (58), of Wood Dale Green, Ballcullen, Dublin, is charged with indecent assault of the three boys at the reformatory between 1968 and 1970.
The accused man said that he accepted full responsibility for his actions and would co-operate with the legal process so as not to cause any further pain or trauma to people who had made complaints against him.
Mr McKenna, who is unemployed and relies on his family and friends for financial support, said: "I understand everything that has been said to me in relation to these charges. I undertake to co-operate fully with the process of law in this case and I hope that my attitude will help to expedite the matter and bring it to closure in due course. It is my intention to accept full responsibility for my actions in this matter and I do not wish to cause any further pain or trauma to the people to have complained against me."
A former lay worker at Letterfrack industrial school, Mr Patrick Mullen (61), of Attyrourty, Letterfrack, has also been charged with six counts of indecently assaulting one boy on various dates between 1966 and 1967.
He denies the charges and has been remanded on continuing bail to appear before Clifden District Court at a later date.