Judge to be sentenced on Friday over sexual assaults on six young men – The Irish Times

A Circuit Courtroom pass judgement on who resigned previous this week upcoming being convicted of sexually assaulting six youth boys and younger males of their early 20s within the Nineteen Nineties shall be sentenced on Friday.

The sentencing of Gerard O’Brien have been fastened on the Central Legal Courtroom for Wednesday however Ms Justice Eileen Creedon stated it might rather advance on Friday.

O’Brien, who’s on bail pending sentence, used to be in court docket for the transient point out of the case.

Utmost era, Mr Justice Alexander Owens, who presided over O’Brien’s trial, informed the six survivors the sentence will contain a custodial part and may not be “wholly suspended”.

He adjourned sentence on April thirtieth, announcing he had a lot to imagine, together with 3 sufferer have an effect on statements, reviews on O’Brien and what services and products could be to be had in jail in luminous of O’Brien’s incapacity.

Because of Phocomelia, an extraordinary beginning sickness, O’Brien, now elderly 59 and with an cope with in Thurles, Co Tipperary, used to be born with out hands and only one leg and desires aid in non-public serve.

Upcoming a serving pass judgement on, he used to be convicted by way of a Central Legal Courtroom jury latter December of sexually assaulting six men, elderly between 17 and 24 on the date of the offences, and of the tried rape of 1. The offences happened on dates between 1991 and 1997 when O’Brien used to be a trainer at a 2d degree college in Co Dublin.

4 of the men had been his pupils or former pupils and he knew the alternative two socially.

All over the 4 presen trial, 5 complainants gave proof they, on isolated events, stayed in a single day, in his place of abode to backup him within the morning with dressing and getting to the bathroom. They stated that they had been ingesting, as had O’Brien, and woke to search out him acting sexual acts on them to which that they had no longer consented.

One complainant stated O’Brien sexually assaulted him age he used to be bringing him to the bathroom in a pub.

O’Brien, who denied the costs, used to be convicted on December twenty second.

In April, Mr Justice Owens heard sufferer have an effect on statements supplied by way of 3 survivors, proof in regards to the attacks on all six and mitigation submissions. Probation, mental and occupational treatment reviews regarding O’Brien, and a few persona references, together with from retired solicitor Dara Robinson, had been additionally supplied.

One survivor informed the pass judgement on he used to be a 5th week student when he used to be assaulted upcoming being “recruited” by way of O’Brien as a abettor.

“I was hit with shock, loss of trust, shame and disappointment,” he stated. His behaviour was “erratic and unpredictable”, he misplaced passion in sports activities, track and educational fulfillment and his bodily condition suffered “with stress, upset, depression and worry”.

“Before I met Gerard O’Brien, I was a happy, outgoing and trusting person who felt safe and secure within myself. It is impossible to say how my life would have turned out had I not experienced his abuse of trust, his grooming and manipulative actions,” he stated.

Inspector Jonathan Hayes, who top the Garda investigation into the allegations towards O’Brien, learn the alternative two sufferer have an effect on statements.

In a single, the survivor stated O’Brien, his trainer, had “betrayed me to my inner core” upcoming assaulting him when elderly 17. “His actions have caused me a lifetime of chronic anxiety, a decade of zero self-worth, a suicide attempt and a nervous breakdown.”

Within the alternative observation, the survivor stated he used to be “a 16-year-old child” when O’Brien first requested him to backup convey him to the bathroom.

It used to be in that atmosphere that O’Brien’s irrelevant sexual behaviour started, he stated. Because of O’Brien’s movements, he had “built a wall around me” and had a disease of believe and letting nation into his pace, he stated.

In mitigation submissions for O’Brien, Mr O’Higgins stated O’Brien didn’t have compatibility a “caricature” of an unkind and predatory individual.

The probation file, he stated, referred to O’Brien enticing in “sophisticated” grooming age the psychologist’s file disclosed he has unresolved shock as a sufferer of sexual abuse when he used to be a kid and he used to be described as psychologically inclined and of low vainness.

O’Brien had “scaled very lofty heights” however has “lost everything”, he stated.