This article is from page 20 of the 2014-07-01 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 20 JPG
A MAJORITY of students in the classroom of a now retired teacher accused of indecently assaulting young school girls would say he was a “good teacher”, a court has heard.
The statement by defence counsel Roderick O’Hanlon SC was put to a woman who alleges the man indecently assaulted her on a weekly basis when she was in fourth, fifth and sixth class.
The woman was giving evidence on the second day of the trial of the 80year-old man who is charged with 67 counts of indecent assault at a Clare primary school between 1964 and 1985. He denies all charges.
The 48 year-old woman told prosecuting counsel Anthony Sammon the accused had “good days and bad days” as a teacher.
She said if the man was having a bad day, “somebody usually got hit really hard”. The woman said she recalled the man sitting down beside her and putting his arm around her.
She said the man would touch her breast area, thigh and inner thigh and genital area. She said all touching took place outside the clothes.
She said on more than one occasion she was brought to the front of the classroom where the man held her between his legs as he sat on a high stool. Under cross-examination from defence counsel Roderick O’Hanlon SC, the woman denied her recollection of the accused as violent man was “incorrect and untrue”.
Counsel put to it to the woman that the man “ran a classroom where the vast majority of students, their recollection is a good teacher”.
“It is an untrue account that you were ever sexually assaulted in this fashion”, he said.
“I was”, the woman replied.
When Mr O’Hanlon put it to the woman that the “atmosphere in the classroom was one of a normal happy classroom”, the woman said this was not true.
The accused, an 80-year-old man who cannot be named for legal reasons, replied not guilty to each of the 67 counts when they were put to him at Ennis Circuit Criminal Court on Tuesday. A jury of seven women and five men has been sworn to hear the trial, which is expected to last between two and three weeks.