A former Christian Brother, who gagged a boy with a bar of soap before he raped him in a toilet, has been found guilty of indecent assaults.
James Seamus Treacy had denied two counts of indecently assaulting the boy in a classroom and a toilet at a school in the 1970s.
Treacy (75), also known to his victim as “Brother Treasaigh”, was found guilty on both counts by a jury of six men and six women at Limerick Circuit Court.
Evidence was heard that Treacy, of Ashford Close, Swords, Dublin, raped the victim at a school urinal after he caught him smoking in the toilet. The victim told the court he was “frozen with fear” during the attack.
He said the former primary school teacher threatened him, that if he told anyone, “God would take” his ill mother and “she would die”.
“I was scared to death and frightened out of my wits,” the victim said. “He told me it was my fault; that I was sinning.”
Treacy beat him across the head, legs and backside, the court heard. “He turned me around . . . It felt like he had 15 hands . . . He was hitting me and opening my trousers,” the victim said. “He shoved a bar of soap into my mouth and bent me over . . . He took down my trousers and penetrated my anus.”
The victim also told the court that the brother burned his genitals with a cigarette.
The court heard Treacy insisted on “cleaning” the boy up with toilet paper afterwards.
The victim said: “He threw [my] shoe at me and told me to get back to class. He threw it at me like I was an animal; like I was a dog.”
Treacy was bitten by the victim as he attempted to undo the victim’s trousers during class. He also fondled the boy’s neck, chest, and nipples, it was heard. “I bit him on the arm and he went absolutely ballistic. He dragged me up to the top of the class and beat me in front of the whole class,” the victim said. “I was crying; I was trying to get away from his blows,” he added.
Treacy was found guilty Thursday by the jury’s unanimous decision for the indecent assault in the classroom.
On Friday, the jury reached a majority guilty verdict of 10-2 on the assault in the school toilet. Treacy was remanded on bail for sentencing and a hearing of victim-impact statements at Limerick Circuit Court on June 30th.