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A retired school teacher who sexually and indecently abused 23 children over the age of 17 has been jailed for eight years.
John McClean, of Casimir Avenue, Harold’s Cross, in Dublin, admitted to abusing children in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s at Terenure College.
The 76-year-old is a former rugby coach and English teacher and was also involved in putting costumes on children for school plays.
McClean sat in the dock today at the sentencing hearing at the Dublin Circuit Court.
He had pleaded guilty to 27 counts of indecent assault and sexual abuse of 23 children at school between 1973 and 1990.
McClean abused nine victims in an office, eight during preparation for school construction, three during sports activities, and three in the classroom.
The children were between 12 and 16 years old at the time.
In their statements about the impact of the victims, the boys, now men in their 40s and 50s, spoke about how the abuse damaged their lives.
When interviewed by Gardaí, McClean denied the abuse but pleaded guilty to these charges when he was indicted last November.
Judge Pauline Codd today praised the victims for their “immense courage and strength” in coming forward.
Han said, “found his voice.”
She said McClean displayed “mind-blowing and shameless arrogance” while abusing his position of trust and power.
He exploited the culture of the time that silenced the boy, he said, and used false moral dilemmas and insidious threats while acting with impunity.
The judge also said he was sentencing McClean for what he did and cannot sentence him for the institution’s failures to protect those in its care.
His defense attorney, Sean Guerin SC, asked the judge not to send McClean to prison today for “the great risk to his life and health from the coronavirus.”
He asked the court to wait until McClean had been vaccinated and cited a report from his GP identifying “a real and serious risk to his life.”
He said McClean fell into all three risk categories: He is elderly, has an underlying health condition, and his immunity is impaired due to cancer treatment.
Guerin said it is the responsibility of the court when he goes to court and although Mc Clean knows he will go to jail, he is asking the court not to send him to jail now due to the risk to his life and health.
Judge Codd said he was “pointing a gun at the head of the court” but refused to suspend the order and sentenced McClean to 11 years with a three-year suspension.
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