{"id":510795,"date":"2026-06-21T08:02:27","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T08:02:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/510795\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T08:02:27","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T08:02:27","slug":"former-teacher-jailed-for-abuse-of-19-boys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/510795\/","title":{"rendered":"Former teacher jailed for abuse of 19 boys"},"content":{"rendered":"

A former schoolteacher who sexually abused 19 young boys in Donegal over 25 years has been jailed for six-and-a-half years.<\/p>\n

Patrick Sharkey, now 83, stood emotionless in the dock as he was put behind bars for a total of 132 charges on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Some victims waved at their attacker as he was led away by prison officers.<\/p>\n

Sharkey, originally from the Clonmany area in Donegal and most recently with an address in Belfast, abused his victims in Co Donegal over a period from 1970 to 1995 – during which time he was a teacher at St Joseph\u2019s High School in Coleraine.<\/p>\n

Many of the victims were students at the school when Sharkey preyed on them, with one victim just seven years of age when the abuse began.<\/p>\n

In sentencing Sharkey at Donegal Circuit Court, Judge John Aylmer said the offending, which he described as \u201cvery invasive\u201d, represented \u201ca gross breach of trust on all occasions\u201d.<\/p>\n

Judge Aylmer said that a further aggravating feature was the length, the extended period of time and the age of his victims, who were between seven and 16 years old.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe offences can only be described as very calculated, premeditated and predatory in nature,\u201d Judge Aylmer said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt involved a significant amount of grooming of the victims.\u201d<\/p>\n

Signed guilty pleas<\/p>\n

Sharkey was before the court on signed guilty pleas for all 132 charges, which were a mixture of indecent assault and sexual assault.<\/p>\n

One of the complainants was the subject of 59 of the charges.<\/p>\n

Some offending occurred when children travelled from school to take part in extracurricular activities and stayed in Sharkey\u2019s parents\u2019 house in Clonmany, Co Donegal, while other offences took place when they were on trips to Dublin.<\/p>\n

Judge Aylmer told Sharkey: \u201cYou took advantage of the modest social circumstances of a significant number of victims and took advantage of their families in luring the children away from their families to your family home in Donegal, where they were delighted to go at the opportunity of a holiday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Judge Aylmer said the number of complainants and large number of offences took it into the upper end for sentencing.<\/p>\n

Sharkey was previously handed a two-year sentence in Northern Ireland and served one year in prison. Three of the victims in that case overlapped into the matter before the Circuit Court in Donegal.<\/p>\n

Judge Aylmer said that a total appropriate headline sentence was one of 14 years in prison \u201cto capture the totality of the offending\u201d.<\/p>\n

The signed guilty plea offered significant mitigation, while Judge Aylmer noted that Sharkey did cooperate with the investigation by travelling to this jurisdiction and making \u201calbeit limited\u201d admissions.<\/p>\n

Judge Aylmer reduced the sentence to one of nine years and three months in prison with the final six months suspended. That term was further reduced on account of Sharkey\u2019s poor state of health and advanced years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a significant risk that by imposing a prison sentence that you might die in prison,\u201d Judge Aylmer said.<\/p>\n

In all, Judge Aylmer sentenced Sharkey to seven years in prison with the last six months suspended.<\/p>\n

Sharkey\u2019s barrister, Eugene Grant, with Maddie Grant, instructed by solicitor Patsy Gallagher, advised the court that Sharkey recently spent 10 days in hospital due to heart and lung conditions.<\/p>\n

At an earlier court hearing, Grant said that \u201cthe prospect of dying in prison is real\u201d for Sharkey.<\/p>\n

Previous hearing<\/p>\n

At a sentencing hearing in May, Detective Garda Johnny Gallagher outlined the evidence in the case to Barrister for the State, Fiona Crawford.<\/p>\n

One victim, who was the subject of 59 counts, told detectives: \u201cPretty much every night I was in Clonmany with Patrick Sharkey, he sexually abused me\u201d. He said he was \u201cso shocked\u201d and said that he \u201cdidn\u2019t know what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another person was just seven years old when Sharkey began to sexually abuse him, while another told how Sharkey was \u201call over me\u201d when they were in the shower, while the victim also remembered Sharkey placing his hand inside his underwear and sexually assaulting him.<\/p>\n

One man recalled how he was just 13 when Sharkey plied him with cider before he started to kiss him on the back and then sexually assaulted him.<\/p>\n

He told how he closed his eyes and \u201cjust waited for it to stop\u201d. \u201cI was in shock or fear,\u201d he told detectives.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was petrified and didn\u2019t sleep,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Another man said he saw media reports regarding Sharkey in Northern Ireland when he decided to make a complaint.<\/p>\n

A man told investigators that Sharkey attempted to penetrate him but he picked up a shoe and hit Sharkey before fleeing from the room while another remembered how he tried to push Sharkey away but said \u201che was too big and he was too strong\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cPatrick Sharkey took something out of me that never returned,\u201d a further victim had said.<\/p>\n

Another of Sharkey\u2019s victims said he has been trying to block out the incidents for 40 years, while another victim told garda\u00ed: \u201cI was just terrified and I pretended to be asleep.\u201d<\/p>\n

A couple of the injured parties remembered how Sharkey would sometimes drive a car and allow them to sit on his lap but as the boys held the steering wheel they were sexually assaulted by Sharkey.<\/p>\n

‘Partial admissions’<\/p>\n

Sharkey was interviewed on three occasions by detectives and made only \u201cpartial admissions\u201d, the court heard.<\/p>\n

The court heard that Sharkey later told investigators: \u201cSome time in the last six months I\u2019ve come to the conclusion that I shouldn\u2019t have touched those people at all\u201d.<\/p>\n

Some victim impact statements were read out at a previous hearing, with one man turning to Sharkey and saying: \u201cI hope you rot in hell.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another victim of Sharkey\u2019s recalled how the predator used power and control to prey on his victims. He told how Sharkey had befriended his family and would often call into his home before he \u201crobbed me of my safe place\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was only there planning his next move,\u201d the man said in a moving victim impact statement. \u201cThis wasn\u2019t a one-off action, but a cold, callous, planned attack, right down to infiltrating my family circle\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking down at his attacker, the man said: \u201cI want to thank you for staying alive long enough for this day to happen, My biggest fear was that you would die long before this day… Feel free to check out now anytime.\u201d<\/p>\n

The school was challenged about the incidents, but it was \u201cswept under the carpet\u201d and this led to him losing respect for figures of authority.<\/p>\n

He recalled that he left school early due to the \u201ctaunting\u201d he received after people heard about what had happened.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat one act of betrayal wrecked my future,\u201d he said. \u201cMy foundation was shattered\u2026I felt so isolated and silenced. It was like my pain didn\u2019t matter. It created a loneliness that I have never fully escaped. It robbed me of my self-confidence and my self-worth.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Enoch<\/p>\n

Ireland<\/p>\n

Enoch Burke fails in bid to remove panel over bias at fitness-to-teach hearing<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Another victim said that other people \u201ccouldn\u2019t live\u201d with what had happened and are no longer here.<\/p>\n

He told Sharkey: \u201cThat is on you. You need to know that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The man told the court that he was \u201cso grateful for the lads who spoke up\u201d and said: \u201cThey gave the rest of us the courage to do the same. I hope when more people hear what happened that others will find the courage so that real justice can be served.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can call the national 24-hour Rape Crisis Helpline at 1800-77 8888, access text service and webchat options at drcc.ie\/services\/helpline\/ or visit Rape Crisis Help. In the case of an emergency, always dial 999\/112. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former schoolteacher who sexually abused 19 young boys in Donegal over 25 years has been jailed for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":510796,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-510795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=510795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/510796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}