Cork gardaí expect file to be sent to DPP

BOARDING SCHOOL:GARDAÍ HAVE confirmed that they expect to forward a file to the DPP before the end of the month on allegations of clerical child sexual and physical abuse at a former boys' boarding school run by the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart.

Gardaí in Cobh and Glanmire in Co Cork have spent the past year investigating complaints of abuse made by former pupils of the Sacred Heart College in Carrignavar relating to the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s.

The complaints are of a historical nature and relate to when the college was a boarding school run by the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, whose members were among the teaching staff involved in the education at the time of about 200 boarders and 150 day pupils.

Originally a seminary, the school, which became coeducational in 1987, ceased taking boarders in 1995, the same year that the first lay principal was appointed.

It is no longer under the trusteeship of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart.

A Garda spokesman confirmed that gardaí had received statements of complaints from 21 former pupils, all now men in their 40s and 50s, detailing allegations of both sexual and physical abuse by four clerical members of staff in the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s.

The allegations relate to either physical or sexual abuse or both by the four men either in the school buildings or on the 300 acres of school grounds, which included a number of playing pitches and dressing rooms.

As part of the investigation, gardaí spoke to more than 50 former pupils at the school, of whom 21 made formal statements of complaint against a small number of clerics who were on the staff during that period. One of the former priests at the school has since died but gardaí have interviewed the three surviving clerics.

One was arrested in Cork for questioning, a second was arrested in Dublin for questioning and a third was meeting gardaí voluntarily.

All three priests – who are in their late 60s and 70s – are no longer attached to the school and have no involvement with the college.

Today the college caters for about 470 students and is managed by Catholic Education, an Irish Schools Trust (Ceist).