Sunday school teacher ordered to pay man he sexually abused €300,000

A jailed Sunday school teacher has been ordered to pay €300,000 in damages to a boy who he sexually abused while he stayed overnight in his home.

Thomas Garvan (65), Corbally Glade, Westbrook Glen, Tallaght, Dublin, was jailed for 4½ years last year after he pleaded guilty to abusing the boy 20 years ago. The sentence was later reduced on appeal to three years and nine months.

Garvan, who was a trusted friend of the boy’s family, admitted to seven sample charges of sexually abusing him on dates between December 1996 and October 1999. The boy was between 11 and 14 years old when he would regularly stay on Friday and Saturday nights in Garvan’s home.

The High Court heard Garvan had groomed the boy from the age of 10 and engaged in masturbation of the boy and himself. He told the boy he would kill him and his mother if he told anyone.

The now 33-year-old man never told anyone of the abuse and went “off the rails” leaving school at 14 and abusing alcohol and narcotics from the age of 17. He tried to kill himself three times but was unsuccessful.

In 2013, he told his then partner what had happened to him and a prosecution ensued with Garvan pleading guilty.

‘Soul’

However, the court heard that Garvan wrote a letter to the man after he was prosecuted, telling him he was lying and that he was “in danger of losing your soul”. The man told the court he was “disgusted” by this.

He sued over the abuse and last year judgment in default was entered against Garvan, who is still in prison. Garvan was not represented in the civil proceedings and took no steps to defend them.

Garvan owns his own home outright, the court heard. Mr Justice Seamus Noonan assessed damages to date at €200,000 plus €100,000 for damages into the future.

The judge was satisfied that the “horrific” abuse suffered by the plaintiff, although not at the extreme end of the scale, resulted in lasting damage to his life and education. He suffered severe emotional trauma which will affect him for the rest of his life, he said.

The judge earlier congratulated the young man on getting his life together after going to live in the UK where he was re-united with his father, who left when he was a four years old.

He is now employed by his father in a responsible role, the judge noted. The abuse of alcohol and narcotics to try to block out the memory of what had happened t him had ended and he had been clean for over a year, he added.