The Supreme Court has cleared the way for the trial of a former Christian Brother on ten charges of indecently assulting five young boys at an industrial school on dates from the mid 1970s to the mid 1980s.
The court restrained the prosecution of the Brother, now in his late seventies, on a further count of indecent assault on a sixth boy.
The three-judge court made its decision when ruling on an appeal by the Brother against a High Court decision permitting his trial to proceed against four of a then total of 10 boys. The DPP had cross-appealed against the High Court’s decision restraining the trial in relation to the six other boys.
At the outset of the hearing of the Supreme Court appeal, the DPP said he was not proceeding with prosecuting the Brother on a number of counts and the appeal consequently related to a total of eleven counts of indecent assault concerning six boys.
Giving the court’s decision, Mr Justice Joseph Finnegan, with whom Mr Justice Nial Fennelly and Ms Justice Fidelma Macken agreed, rejected arguments by the Brother that there was a serious risk of an unfair trial on grounds including prosecutorial delay of 21 months, the death of a number of potential witnesses and the lack of specificity in the charges.
The judge said the man had failed to show evidence that his defence was prejudiced by any of those factors in relation to five of the boys. In all the circmstances of the case, it would not be unfair to allow the trial proceed regarding those five, he ruled.
However, in relation to a sixth boy, the judge noted the alleged offence related to a single alleged incident of indecent assault within a seven year period which allegedly occurred when the boy was sick in bed. He was satisfied the time span in this instance of a single complaint was such that it would be unsafe for a trial to proceed and he upheld the High Court’s order prohibiting the trial in relation to that alleged offence.