A man has told a jury at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court that his teacher molested him as a ten year-old as he cried in the changing rooms over the loss of a school football match.
Five men today told the jury they were molested by the same teacher during their time as pupils at a Sligo primary school between 1967 and 1984.
Patrick Curran (59), a teacher at St John’s National School, Temple Street, Sligo since July 1966, denies 237 counts of the indecent assault of 10 boys between September 1966 and June 1984. One man told Mr Enna Mulloy SC, prosecuting, that he captained his class football team as a 10 year-old boy.
His team lost and he ran to the changing room in tears at the disappointment. He said Mr Curran came into the room and put his arm around his shoulders before placing his hand into his shorts and touching his genitals. Mr Curran removed his hand and left the room some minutes later as another boy approached.
He told Ms Grainne McMorrow SC, defending, he was embarrassed by the incident and told no one about his experiences at the school, until asked by gardaí in 1999. Ms McMorrow put it to each of the five men that their allegations were fantasies, mistakes or fabrications created to serve an ulterior motive.
She told each man that her client absolutely and categorically denied anything inappropriate. One man replied: "If Patrick Curran denies ever interfering with me, I am afraid he is a liar".
The trial continues before Judge Michael White and a jury of 10 men and two women.