A FORMER PRIMARY school teacher has been found guilty of indecently assaulting one his pupils.

A jury of six men and six women took two hours and 42 minutes to decide the 75-year old accused was guilty by a unanimous decision.

The man’s trial opened yesterday at Limerick Circuit Court.

The victim, who was in fifth class at the time, gave evidence the accused tried to undo his trousers in a classroom in the school. He said the accused fondled his neck and chest, and “played with my nipples”.

The victim said he “bit” the accused on the arm to stop him.

“He went absolutely ballistic. He dragged me up to the top of the class and beat me in front of the whole class,” the victim said.

“I was crying. I was trying to get away from his blows.”

The assault took place on a date in the late 1970s.

As the verdict was read out in court the victim clapped and whispered “Yes”.

The jury has yet to reach a verdict on a second count against the accused of a further charge of indecently assaulting the injured party.

This offence relates to an allegation that the accused gagged the boy with a bar of soap before burning his privates with a cigarette, while raping him in the school toilets, on a date in the 1970s.

Following the horrific alleged anal rape, the man took the boy to meet an international sports star as a treat, the court heard last Wednesday.



Frozen

The injured party gave evidence that he was “frozen with fear” during the alleged sexual attack. He said, the accused told him that if he told anyone about the alleged incident, “God would take” his ill mother, and “she would die”.

Giving direct evidence, the injured party said: “I was scared to death and frightened out of my wits.”

He claimed the incident took place at a urinal after the accused found him smoking in the school toilets.

“He told me it was my fault; that I was sinning.”

He said the accused beat him across the head, legs and backside.

“He turned me around…It felt like he had fifteen hands…He was hitting me and opening my trousers.”

“He shoved a bar of soap into my mouth and bent me over…He took down my trousers and penetrated my anus.”

He added: “I felt a burning on my penis and testicles. He was burning me with a cigarette.”

He further claimed the accused insisted on personally “cleaning” him up with toilet paper afterwards.

“He threw (my) shoe at me and told me to get back to class. He threw it at me like I was an animal; like I was a dog,” he told the court.

The jury are to continue their deliberations tomorrow.