Liam Coughlan (90) is currently in prison for sexually abusing former pupils in Kilkenny in the 1970s
Liam Coughlan is currently in prison for sexually abusing former pupils in Kilkenny in the 1970s Former students told of assaults taking place in a classroom, a small library and a shed beside the school yard at St Patrick’s CBS primary school on Patrick Street, Portarlington, Co Offaly, had pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of indecent assault against nine former students who attended the school on Patrick Street, Portarlington.
On Friday, the jury took just an hour to find Coughlan guilty on all of the 31 counts they were asked to consider. After the verdict, Judge Keenan Johnson praised the complainants who were in court and said they could take pride in the fact that their voices had now been heard. At least one of the men was crying.
Failed ticket sales platform Tickets.ie owes €1.4m to event organisers, High Court toldClaire Byrne deploys the tact and restraint that make her so good on delicate topics During the trial the complainants gave evidence of being sexually abused by Coughlan when he would call them to the front of the class and put them on his lap while telling the other children to read their books. As well as assaults in the schoolroom, the complainants told of being sexually assaulted in a small library in the school, a shed beside the schoolyard and in the front seat of a van being driven by Coughlan.
The jury was not told that Coughlan was in jail and had been convicted in two cases in 2023 involving 24 former primary school pupils from Kilkenny who made similar complaints to those in the Portarlington case, including being fondled in class in front of the other pupils. The former teacher, who has significant health problems, is still serving the 4½-year sentence he was given for the Kilkenny crimes, which arose from his time with the CBS Kilkenny boys’ primary school.
Most of the Portarlington crimes occurred when the victims were in sixth class and had Coughlan as their teacher, though at least one assault involved a victim in first class.
“We just thought it was normal. We didn’t know any different,” one of the victims said of being abused in class by Coughlan.
“I have the memory that he smelled of chalk and sweat. ” In his address to the jury at the end of the trial, William Fennelly, for the prosecution, referred to complainants becoming emotional while giving evidence.
“The manner of how they gave their evidence screams as loudly as anything I could say to you,” Fennelly told the jurors. The claimants said they did not tell their parents what was happening at school, with one saying that, at the time, if you told you parents you had been punished at school, “they would ask you what you did that you deserved that”.
Coughlan’s barrister Maurice Coffey made an application in the absence of the jury for the trial to be stopped because of the 40-year delay between the offences and charges being brought. Det Garda Elaine Conlon, from Portlaoise Garda station, who led the investigation, told the judge in the absence of the jury that most of the complainants had presumed Coughlan was dead.
The first complaints were made in 2022, after the men read media reports of Coughlan being charged in relation to the Kilkenny offences. Conlon said some of the people she approached during her investigation did not want to make statements, saying they “had put that behind them”. Coughlan, who did not give evidence, gave a voluntary interview to the investigation during which he said the allegations were untrue, the court heard.
Accused persons unrepresented due to solicitors’ dispute challenge legality of detentionPwC employee was working remotely in India when he should have been in DublinAccused persons unrepresented due to solicitors’ dispute challenge legality of detention
Please follow us on Google to support usOffaly Kilkenny Laois Primary-Level Christian-Brothers Criminal-Courts Portlaoise
Ireland Latest News, Ireland Headlines
Similar News: You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Former employee at Wilson’s Hospital School awarded €7,500 for unfair dismissalSchool where teacher Enoch Burke worked has faced employment cases from six former staff over past two years
Read more »
Former Christian Brother’s 1970 abuse confession letter concealed for decades, Dáil hearsMary Lou McDonald said survivors, forced to fight until 2021 for compensation, were ‘faced down so viciously by State’
Read more »
Former CIA Whistleblower Reveals Worst Interrogation Techniques Used on Muslim PrisonersFormer CIA officer John Kiriakou has claimed that interrogation techniques used on Muslim prisoners after 9/11 were far worse than waterboarding, with detainees being made to feign pain and faint when asked their name.
Read more »
Former Circuit Court judge loses appeal against sexual abuse convictionsThe Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal by former judge Gerard O Brien against his conviction for attempted rape and sexual abuse of six young men occurring decades ago while he was a teacher.
Read more »