A group of men who were sexually abused by a teacher as primary-school classmates in the 1960s want the taoiseach to correct the Dail record about their compensation cases.
Seán Drummond, a former Christian Brother, was convicted of molesting 19 fourth-class boys in the 1967-1968 school year. His victims, who were then aged eight and nine, do not qualify for the state’s ex gratia payment scheme because it requires them to prove a complaint had previously been made about their abuser before they fell foul of him.
Replying to a Dail question from Micheál Martin, the Fianna Fail leader, on March 22, Enda Kenny wrongly said the European Court of Human Rights had ruled in the landmark Louise O’Keeffe school-abuse case that the state is only liable for abuse perpetrated at primary-school level if a prior complaint existed.
In the Dail the following week, Martin invited Kenny to correct what he had said, but he has yet to do so.
“The government have interpreted the ruling of the European court to suit themselves,” said Thomas Hogan, of Victims of Child Abuse in Day Schools. “What we have been put through by the state has caused us more pain that the act itself. We believe there was a prior complaint about him but the Christian Brothers won’t give us the roll book and we can’t prove it.”
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Drummond was jailed for two years in 2009 for molesting 18 boys at Creagh Lane National School in Limerick. He was subsequently found guilty of abusing a 19th boy in the class. His victims were among about 200 primary-school abuse claimants who dropped their cases when O’Keeffe lost her appeal in the Supreme Court.