A RETIRED school teacher has been sentenced at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to 18 months imprisonment for indecently assaulting a former pupil 40 years ago.
Seán Haran (63), Cherry Garth, Swords, was convicted by a jury in February following a three day trial of 12 counts of indecent assault against the boy at a Dublin primary school between July 1966 and June 1970 while the child was aged between seven and 10 years.
The now 49-year-old complainant had quoted the Barnardos logo – “every childhood lasts a lifetime” – in his victim impact report when describing how “that unspeakable behaviour” still blights his life.
Judge Martin Nolan described the victim impact report as a “graphic and moving description” of damage the man sustained as a result of the assaults by Haran. He said parents entrusted their children to teachers who were in “loco parentis” and for the most part this country was “blessed” by its teaching profession.
Judge Nolan said Haran was a teacher who had breached this position of trust but he noted the many testimonials provided to the court on Haran’s behalf outlining his good character. He imposed an 18-month sentence and ordered that Haran be added to the sex offenders register.
A former pupil of Haran’s told defence counsel, Paul McDermott SC, that Haran was a “kind, good natured and good humoured person.”
Mr McDermott said Haran had been the victim of a serious assault in 1992 in which he had been thrown over the sea wall at Clontarf and sustained “horrific injuries” to his spine. He outlined 23 testimonials provided to the court by colleagues, former pupils, family and friends of Haran describing their experiences of his good character and charitable work. Mr McDermott told Judge Nolan: “This conviction tears apart and tears down the edifice of his life.” He said Haran was entitled to some recognition that he had done some good work over the years and that he has been an upstanding member of the community since 1970.