2021-02-11 · Dublin
Private school coach admitted abuse to priest in 1996, court hears
John McClean, aged 76, a former teacher and rugby coach at Dublin's Terenure College, pleaded guilty to 27 charges of indecent assault against 23 male students committed between 1973 and 1990. The allegations surfaced in 1996 when a victim's father informed Father Robert Kelly, the then Provincial of the Carmelite Order, about the abuse. McClean admitted the allegations during a meeting with Fr Kelly, who later claimed he had no recollection but accepted the notes as true. McClean had left Terenure College in 1996, taking a rugby coaching role at UCD. The court heard that victims were sometimes excluded from the school rugby team as punishment for confronting McClean. McClean denied the offences during Gardaí interviews, but ultimately pleaded guilty in November 2020. Judge Pauline Codd remanded him on bail, with the case to be finalized on 18 February. The hearing focused on the admission of abuse, the victims' impact statements, and the procedural history of the case.