Former sports coach jailed for indecent assault of five boys

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

A former sports coach was sentenced to four and a half years in prison at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court for indecently assaulting five boys. The sentencing proceedings were reported on 22 May 2023.

The man pleaded guilty to 13 sample counts of indecent assault on the sixth day of his trial. The counts concerned offences in Waterford on unknown dates between December 1979 and March 1990.

He had initially pleaded not guilty to 266 counts of indecently and sexually assaulting the five boys in Waterford, Cork and Kilkenny between 1978 and 1993. After a defence application to withdraw the charges from the jury, Judge Martin Nolan ruled that counts relating to alleged incidents when the complainants were aged 15 or older should not be considered by the jury. He referred to the law applicable in the 1980s, under which the activity was legal after the age of 15 if there was consent.

Prosecuting counsel Paul Greene SC told the court on 25 April 2023 that the guilty pleas were acceptable to the Director of Public Prosecutions on the basis that the full facts would be heard at sentencing. Judge Nolan ordered the four-and-a-half-year term to run consecutively to the sentence the man was already serving.