A detective garda who investigated allegations of sexual abuse against a number of Christian Brothers at an industrial school told the High Court yesterday he had experienced difficulties getting information from the order.
However, the attitude of the brothers changed completely after the order issued a national apology through the media in 1999 to all victims of sexual abuse at the hands of brothers, Det Garda Noel Burke said.
Before 1999 he had been unable to get a list of all the brothers who had taught at the school and what their duties had been, Det Garda Burke said. He had to have the name of an individual before he would be given information about that brother. That attitude had changed after 1999.
Det Garda Burke was giving evidence during an application by a former brother, who had taught at the school for an order preventing his trial on two charges of gross indecency against a boy at dates unknown between 1964 and 1966. The alleged victim is now in his early 50s.
The hearing concluded yesterday and Mr Justice Ó Caoimh reserved his decision.
The former brother, who left the order in the late 1970s and is in his mid-60s, denies the charges and contends that the delay of some 30 years between the alleged offences and the making of a formal complaint has prejudiced his right to a fair trial.
He also alleges that the four-year delay between the making of the complaint and his being charged has also created a risk of an unfair trial.
The complainant started at the industrial school when he was about eight years old, having gone there from an orphanage. The court heard he was one of a number of former inmates who have made allegations of abuse against several brothers, some of whom have died.
In court yesterday Det Garda Burke told Mr Patrick Gageby SC, for the former brother, that he had experienced difficulties in tracing the applicant after complaints had been made against him. It was not until late 1996 that he learned the former brother's name. In 1997 he had traced him to a school where he was working and interviewed him.
He agreed that the complainant had made his first statement against the brother in 1995 while at the home of another man. That second man had also alleged abuse against the former brother. He agreed that the DPP had decided not to proceed with the prosecution of the former brother in relation to the second man's allegations.
Mr Anthony Collins, for the DPP, said the decision not to prosecute in the other case was taken after another former inmate, who was alleged to have witnessed an incident of abuse of the second man, said he had no recollection of the particular incident.