By Niamh Ellis
The High Court has refused to stop the prosecution of a Christian Brother on 72 historic sexual-offence charges involving six complainants, including five former residents of Artane Industrial School.
S.A. faced eight charges of buggery, 63 of indecent assault and one of attempted buggery. The allegations concerning the five Artane complainants dated from 1961 to 1964, while allegations involving a sixth complainant concerned events between 1964 and 1969 on Christian Brothers lands in Marino.
The complaints were not reported until the 1990s and 2000. S.A., aged 74 when the case was heard, argued that delays of more than three decades meant important witnesses had died or could not be traced, records were missing and his ability to challenge the allegations had been seriously weakened.
Mr Justice O'Neill accepted that the reporting delays, ranging from about 30 to 36 years, were plainly inordinate. However, for the limited purpose of examining the reasons for delay, the court was required to assume the allegations were true.
The judge accepted evidence that fear of punishment, shame, guilt, concern that complaints against members of the clergy would not be believed and lasting psychological effects adequately explained the delayed reporting. Clinical psychologist Paul Gilligan's assessments supported those explanations.
That meant S.A. had to identify specific prejudice to his defence rather than rely simply on the age of the allegations. The court examined complaints about unavailable kitchen workers, Christian Brothers, infirmary staff and records, another alleged victim who could not be identified and other missing witnesses. It found that S.A. had not shown that the missing evidence would probably have materially assisted his defence.
O'Neill J also found no significant prosecutorial delay after a dedicated Artane inquiry began in May 1998. An earlier period of unreasonable Garda delay concerning one complainant did not create demonstrated prejudice.
Finally, the judge rejected the argument that adverse publicity about Artane and the Christian Brothers made a fair jury trial impossible, finding that appropriate directions from the trial judge could address that issue. The application for prohibition was dismissed.