Superintendent Tony Dowd, Clifden, told the court that boys were sent to Letterfrack during the 1950s, 1960s and up until it closed in 1974, for various misdemeanours such as "mitching" school or if their parents were poor and were deemed by the courts to be unfit to care for them.
The superintendent outlined the type of abuse each of the 25 victims suffered at the hands of the accused, who was then a stout, strong man in his 30s and early 40s. 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. He was mad. He hammered you with a leather strap and nobody was safe with him," the victim, who was 11 when he was abused, told investigating gardaí.
Evidence was heard of how the boys were stripped and beaten with a leather strap if they refused to partake in sexual acts with him. In his statement to gardaí, one man recalled how, as a boy, he was taken to a cloakroom and stripped before he was beaten all over with a leather strap. He suffered bruising all over his body and cried himself to sleep that night. Others were offered sweets if they started to cry while being abused and many were given apples, cigarettes or extra bread after they were assaulted and told to carry on with their work in the kitchen as if nothing had happened.
One victim recalled how the abuse continued after the boys went to bed at night. Brother Tobin would come into the dormitory and molest the boys in their beds. Many cried themselves to sleep. Evidence was heard how he took particular pleasure in watching the boys shower and he would made them remove their togs on the pretext of washing themselves properly. He regularly made one boy stay back and indecently assault him after the others had left. All of the abuse, the victims said, was carried out in the kitchen when nobody else was about, in the boiler room off the kitchen or in a hen house on the farm attached to the reformatory.
Mr Patrick Gageby SC, defending, said his client was remorseful for the hurt he had caused and he prayed then and now for the victims. Mr Gageby said his client had not abused children since leaving Letterfrack in 1974 and a profile of his character showed he was not homosexual.
Mr Gageby said the accused had been "put in" to the Christian Brothers when he was 15, was emotionally and socially deprived and of below average intelligence. He did menial jobs all of his life and took his frustrations out on the unfortunate victims, Mr Gageby said.
Seven victims of the abuse gave evidence in court. Some said they could never forgive the accused and that they blamed him for ruining their lives. Many said they had turned to drink and drugs to blot out the hurt and a few had resorted to crime. All of them said they did not want the accused to pray for them.
One of the victims, Mr Frank Shanley, said he had never hugged any of his seven children because he associated touch with sexual abuse. He had been going out with his wife for eight months before he kissed her.
He said he was over the moon with the sentence imposed, but it would never be able to make up for the lost years of his life.
Another victim, who did not wish to be identified, blamed Irish society, Irish parents and the Catholic church for allowing unprotected children to be abused in such a systematic way. He said he had not been able to form any sort of meaningful relationship until he met and married his wife when he was 48, because up to then he had blamed himself in some way for the abuse. His wife was a psychiatric nurse and she helped him cope. He now lived in England where he felt he could get away from the abuse he suffered in Ireland. "I blame Irish society for what happened and I blame my parents for leaving me in there. I believe Irish parents got gratification from sending their children off to religious institutions at a young age," the man said.
He said he believed Brother Tobin was not homosexual and in a perverse way he too had been sent off at a young age to join the Christian Brothers.
Another victim spoke of years of drug and alcohol addiction and attempted suicides. "I hate him," he said of the accused. "He destroyed all of our lives."