Court told boy sexually abused while in Lourdes

A visually impaired boy who was put into institutional care was sexually abused for the first time at the age of seven while …

A visually impaired boy who was put into institutional care was sexually abused for the first time at the age of seven while on a pilgrimage to Lourdes, the High Court was told yesterday.

Mr Lysander Andrej Preston, now aged 34, has brought an action for damages against the Rosminian Brothers of St Joseph's School for the Visually Impaired, Drumcondra, Dublin, and the State arising out of his alleged sexual abuse between 1977 and 1988. The claim is denied.

The plaintiff was born on June 12th, 1969, and changed his name by deed poll in February 2000.

He stated that on diverse dates between 1977 and 1988 while in residential care at St Joseph's School under the care of the defendants, he was repeatedly sexually abused by a Charles Mulligan and a Brother Louis Summerling, both now deceased.

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Mulligan, it is claimed, frequently raped the plaintiff up to the age of about 14. Brother Summerling was in charge of the intermediate residential care unit at the school, while the boy was in that particular unit from the age of 14 to 18. It is claimed that both men had unlimited and unsupervised access to and control over children.

Mr Colm Smyth SC, for the plaintiff, said Mulligan was not a person of religion but had access to the school and had buggered his client when he regularly took him from the school. He brought him to a car-park in the school premises and also down a back road near the airport. While in the car-park he had subjected him to oral sex.

The first sexual abuse by Mulligan had taken place on Mr Preston while on a pilgrimage to Lourdes when he was sharing a room with the boy who was then seven.

When the plaintiff was having a shower in his room he was molested and subjected to an act of anal rape.

While in Lourdes he had to stay in bed and was subjcted to further acts. He had been taken regularly to the car-park and to the airport between 1977 and 1988 and subjected to abuse of a horrific nature.

Mr Preston, who has a Dublin address, had a nervous breakdown in October 1997 which was largely attributable to his horrific lifestyle and he was hospitalised for three months, counsel said.

It is claimed that the defendants failed to exercise proper supervision and were negligent in allowing Mulligan and Summerling to sexually assault the plaintiff. In addition, it is claimed, the State had caused the plaintiff to be sent to the school.

The defendants are denying the claims and say the proceedings are statute-barred because of the time lapse. They claim they are totally prejudiced because the plaintiff has brought his case some 13 to 24 years after the alleged incidents, and the summonses were issued in 2001.

Mr Justice Eamon de Valera said the case could take several days.

He asked the sides to discuss the issue so that today he could arrange to give it two weeks of his time in January or February.