A Donegal caretaker who kept his job at a school despite a conviction for sexually assaulting a pupil has been sentenced to 18 years for the rape and sexual assault of four more boys.
Michael Ferry (55) abused the four boys on an almost weekly basis, some for as long as four years.
He groomed them by supplying them with alcohol, cigarettes and money. He would also make them watch pornography with him, with one boy reporting to gardaí that the man had shown him child pornography.
The judge said the authorities must have been aware that Ferry had a conviction for a similar offence yet he continued working in the school.
“A disturbing feature of this case is that the outrages perpetrated in the school predate and postdate the sexual assault of a pupil in the same school for which he was placed on the sex offenders register for five years,” Mr Justice Paul Carney commented.
“Despite the fact that he pleaded guilty to sexual assault in 2002 he remained working in the school to continue to engage in the stalking and grooming with which we are concerned with today”.
“This must have been known to the local gardaí and presumably the school authorities.” Mr Justice Carney noted Ferry was not identified in media reports of the
2002 conviction because the district court judge at the time ordered he remain anonymous. This was because the victim knew Ferry’s mother was ill and did not want to upset her.
Following today’s sentencing, Mr Justice Carney refused to make an order that Ferry not be identified in reports.
“Look what happened the last time,” he told defence counsel. “I don’t see how publication of his name could identify any particular victim.”
Mr Justice Carney took into account Ferry’s guilty plea and “genuine remorse” but also noted that he had abused a position of trust and engaged in the “systematic grooming of the boys”.
He imposed an 18 year sentence with the final four suspended. He ordered Ferry be registered as a sex offender and that he never have contact with his victims again.
Ferry of Bunbeg, Gweedore, County Donegal, pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to 38 sample charges which included 17 oral and anal rapes, 18 sex assaults, one indecent assault and two charges of production of child pornography on dates between July 1, 1990 and September 31, 2005.
The charges in relation to production of child pornography occurred when Ferry took photographs of two of the boys while they were naked.
Ferry told one victim to imagine it was “a girl doing it to you” while he masturbated him after supplying him with whiskey.
Two of the boys later told gardaí that they were abused by Ferry in the school after he got them so drunk they were afraid to go home to their parents.
One of Ferry's victims waived his right to anonymity and urged other victims of abuse to come forward to gardaí and "end your own nightmare."
An emotional Derek Mulligan read the following statement to the media:
"Basically what happens is, it ruins your life and everything in your life. You lose your childhood and then the more you try to bury it, it eats away at you bit by bit. It even haunts your dreams."
"It wasn't until I came forward that my nightmare ended. My advice to anyone is, don't hold it inside anymore, talk to the gardaí, end your own nightmare. It's only when your nightmare ends that your own life can begin."
"What he is is a demon. He has no remorse whatsoever for what he has done. His only remorse is being caught. How can someone so sick prey, not only even on people his own age but on children - the most vulnerable of all, just for his own kicks and pleasures. I believe someone so sick and perverted could never change."
"But why wasn't he stopped before this when he was brought before the courts in 2002? Why did his employers still employ him? There are so many questions."
"Did he say the same to that victim that day in 2002- that he had remorse for what he had done to him? But yet he still goes on to abuse again. Remorse? Does he even know what remorse means?"