A 71-year-old Christian Brother who pleaded guilty to the sexual abuse of 25 boys at Letterfrack Industrial School over a 15-year period was sentenced to 12 years in prison, with the last four years
suspended, at Galway Circuit Criminal Court today.
Maurice Tobin, North Circular Road, Dublin, was a cook in St. Joseph's Reformatory, Letterfrack. From the time he arrived there in 1959 age 27, until the institution closed in 1974, he systematically molested, beat and buggered boys, aged from 11 to 14, who were sent to work in his kitchen.
The accused, who is still a stout, strong man given his age, was originally charged with 140 counts of buggery and indecent assault involving his victims over three decades but he pleaded guilty to 25 sample counts, including two charges of buggery, and 23 charges of indecent assault.
Supt Tony Dowd, Clifden, said boys were sent to Letterfrack from the 1950s until it closed, for behaviour such as mitching school, or if their parents were poor and deemed by the courts to be unfit to care for them.
Supt Dowd outlined the type of abuse each of the 25 victims suffered at the hands of the accused. In contrast, the boys were undernourished, small and thin. They were sent to work in the kitchens and were all terrified of Brother Tobin as his reputation was known throughout the entire institution. One victim described him as "an absolute lunatic".
Passing sentence, Judge Harvey Kenny said one could not but wonder that such violent sexual crime was allowed to go unchecked in Letterfrack. "Nobody was listening then," he said..