Courts

Jury in trial of teacher accused of indecently assaulting boy (13) in 1985 begins deliberations

Jacintha McSherry O’Connor (63) denies indecently assaulting boy while giving grinds in his home when she was student teacher

Complainant went to gardaí with allegations when his children reached the age he had been at the time of the alleged offending. Photograph: Collins Courts

Isabel Hayes
Tue Oct 17 2023 - 18:00

The jury in the trial of a teacher accused of indecently assaulting a male student 38 years ago has started its deliberations.

Jacintha McSherry O’Connor (63) of The Mullins, Donegal Town, Co Donegal, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of indecently assaulting a child on dates between June 1st and September 1st, 1985. She was aged between 24 and 25 at the time of the alleged offending, and the boy was 13.

The court heard the incidents are alleged to have happened while Ms McSherry O’Connor worked as a student teacher at a school in Dublin. It is alleged that she indecently assaulted the boy on two occasions in his home, where she had been giving him grinds.

It is also alleged there was sexual contact between the boy and the accused on a holiday she attended with his family in Spain in the run-up to the time of the alleged offences before the jury.

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In his closing speech on Tuesday, Garrett McCormack, prosecuting, told the jury it should have “no doubt” when it came to deciding the case, primarily because of the evidence of the complainant.

The court heard the man went to gardaí with the allegations when his children reached the age he had been at the time of the alleged offending and he realised how young he had been at the time. He also became concerned that Ms McSherry O’Connor was still teaching children, the court heard.

He first told his girlfriend at the age of 19 that he had been abused by Ms McSherry O’Connor, which his then girlfriend gave evidence of at trial, the jury was told.

Bringing the jury through the evidence of the trial, Mr McCormack said that when giving the boy grinds in his house, Ms McSherry O’Connor discussed how certain music made her “horny” and started saying things of a sexual nature about boyfriends.

“The prosecution says that is a form of grooming of a child,” Mr McCormack said.

This was a 24-year-old student teacher and a 12-year-old child, the jury was told. “This isn’t a flighty teenager, this is a HDip student, someone in a position of responsibility,” prosecution counsel said.

Mr McCormack said the boy became “infatuated” with Ms McSherry O’Connor and was “drawn in”.

He said the complainant gave evidence of the sexual contact between him and his teacher both in Spain and in his home and that the memories of these alleged incidents were “burnt into his brain”. They included her rubbing her breasts against him at the swimming pool and giving him oral sex in her holiday apartment, the court heard.

“These are difficult things for a man in his fifties to say,” Mr McCormack said. “Why would he say these things?” He said despite a robust cross-examination from defence counsel, the man “did not waver” in his allegations.

Mr McCormack said the woman allowed the boy into her family home and “fostered this relationship”. He said her only explanation to the jury for this was that she “should have known better” and that he was being bullied and she felt he could tell her anything. “This was part of the grooming relationship,” Mr McCormack said.

“There’s something not right there,” Mr McCormack said. “ ... Constantly having him in her house with her family, going on holidays, continuing to go [to his house] after the holidays. Something is not right and why is something not right?

“Because [the complainant] is telling you the truth. This is a true, accurate and consistent version of events and I’m suggesting you can return verdicts of guilt on both charges before the court, and you can do so with a clear conscience.”

In his closing speech to the jury, Patrick McGrath, defending, submitted that there were huge inconsistencies which he said “fundamentally call into question the reliability and perhaps the truthfulness of the complainant”.

“You’re not here to condemn people because they perhaps become too close to a student or go on a cheap holiday with a boy who had a crush,” he said.

He told the jury it could not decide the case based on why the complainant would make up the allegations. “That fundamentally subverts the trial process,” he said. Instead, he said the jury must approach the case “scientifically and coldly”.

Mr McGrath told the jury Ms McSherry O’Connor was “a person who has been a teacher for a long, long time” in which nothing of this kind had been alleged against her.

He said she has been married for a long time and is a productive member of society. He told the jury she had done everything “humanly possible” to meet the allegations against her.

Mr McGrath put it to the jury that Ms McSherry O’Connor had made an “emphatic denial” to gardaí, including saying: “Oh my God, no way, no, no, no, no, no, no” when asked if she performed oral sex on the boy.

Defence counsel also submitted it was not feasible that she brought the boy to the Teachers’ Club and gave him alcohol, as the trial heard.

“This is a case where danger lurks,” Mr McGrath said. “There is a real risk in a case of this kind, where a woman in her sixties is asked questions by the guards and accepts that what she did wasn’t appropriate, accepts maybe she was too close [to a student].”

He urged the jury not to “allow prejudice, sympathy, all of that to overturn the process and reach a conclusion unfavourable to Ms McSherry O’Connor”.

He said the jury could not be satisfied that the prosecution has proven its case beyond reasonable doubt and he urged it to return verdicts of not guilty on both counts.

The jury will resume its deliberations on Wednesday.

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