GAA coach convicted of sexual abuse
A County Tipperary GAA coach has been convicted by a jury of sexually abusing three young girls sexually during football and hurling training sessions at a national school.
The 51-year-old abuser's identity cannot be revealed as a result of an order made by Judge Joseph Matthews at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to protect the victims' identities.
Judge Matthews was also told by prosecuting counsel Mr Anthony Sammon SC (with Ms Martina Baxter BL) that the defendant had 33 other charges pending.
The jury took just three hours to convict him on a total of seven charges of sexually abusing two sisters and another girl on various dates in the September 1996 - June 1997 school year. The girls were then aged between six and eight.
He was remanded on continuing bail for sentence on January 23 next. Five further charges against him in the trial were struck out by Judge Matthews.
Three of the guilty verdicts were unanimous and the further remaining counts by 10-2 majorities. It was day-4 of the trial and the jury spent Friday night in a hotel. On its return to court the jury asked to view the video-link evidence again.
The victims told the jury the defendant had got them to put their hands into his pocket and feel his genitals for a few minutes while they were on the premises of the football training grounds.
One girl, now 11, broke into tears twice as she told the jury via video-link that he would then move her hand on his private parts, which he made her touch through a hole in the pocket.
She agreed she had not told investigating gardai about the alleged hole when she made a statement to them five years ago and said she could not explain why she had not done so.
The victims denied in cross-examination by defence counsel, Mr Roger Sweetman SC (with Mr Stephen McCann BL) that they voluntarily put their hands in the defendant's pocket to fish for sweets and coins which he had a habit of keeping there, or for his whistle.
The mother of the sisters told the jury that her eldest girl told her in April 1996 and mentioned that the defendant had made her put her hand in his pocket.
She said she had not taken the matter any further at the time but she did so when her daughter again brought his name up before the beginning of the 1997 school year. The girl had expressed a reluctance to return to school.
The defendant had pleaded not guilty to the charges in the trial and told investigating gardai following his arrest in September 1997 that if children had put their hands in his pockets it was always of their own volition.
He said he often had sweets, coins and his whistle in his pockets, and some children would put their hands in his pockets to get them out.
"I never asked them to do so," he told gardai. He also denied ever being aware of feeling the children's hands on his genitals.
"I always treat children with care," he said. He also told gardai that he had travelled across the country, coaching young children and nobody had ever complained about his behaviour with children before.
He also denined having "a soft spot" for any of the young children he coached. "In my job I wouldn't have the time," he told gardai.
