A former principal of De La Salle National School in Waterford city has been sentenced to four years and three months in prison for abusing a child, with the final year of the sentence suspended.<\/p>\n
Con Desmond, 91, was found guilty on nine counts of indecent assault against a child between September 1978 and December 1980.<\/p>\n
Desmond, with a former address of Woodlands, Kilrush Road, Ennis, Co Clare, was known as Brother Cornelius during his tenure at St Stephen’s De La Salle National School.<\/p>\n
At his sentencing at Waterford Circuit Court, it was revealed by garda\u00ed that Desmond has previous convictions for offences of a similar nature.<\/p>\n
The victim gave an impact statement in court where he spoke about the lifelong impact of the abuse.<\/p>\n
The man, who wished to retain his anonymity, said that he still feels pain when he remembers the abuse.<\/p>\n
“I have been through so much counselling in my life. I lost respect for all authority which set me down paths in life with only darkness in the end,” he said.<\/p>\n
The victim used drink and drugs to numb the psychological pain of the abuse, but the memories remained.<\/p>\n
During the Covid lockdown, he thought a lot about the abuse he experienced, describing it as “like a dam breaking”.<\/p>\n
He confided in a trusted friend and former schoolmate who encouraged him to report the abuse to An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na.<\/p>\n
The friend told the court that he remembered seeing the victim with “big red eyes” outside Desmond\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
Detectives attempted to speak to Desmond in July 2024 at his home in Ennis, Co Clare, but he presented as “highly aggressive”.<\/p>\n
He was described standing over one garda with his fists clenched and shouting about “getting weapons”.<\/p>\n
He vehemently denied the allegations of abuse and described the victim as a “source of trouble”.<\/p>\n
Detective Garda Finbarr O\u2019Sullivan informed the court that Desmond was convicted for indecent assault against a child aged 12-13 years between 1984 and 1985.<\/p>\n
Desmond entered a plea of guilty and received a suspended sentence of three years.<\/p>\n
In 2013, Desmond was found guilty on 13 counts of indecent assault against a child aged between 8 and 12 years between September 1977 and July 1982.<\/p>\n
He received a two-year prison sentence in Cork Prison.<\/p>\n
Det O\u2019Sullivan confirmed that the abuse occurred within “the school setting”.<\/p>\n
In 1989, Desmond was ordained as a priest and served the Diocese of Killaloe, Co. Clare.<\/p>\n
At time of writing, it is unclear when he was removed from the ministry.<\/p>\n
Judge Eugene O\u2019Kelly referred to the “egregious” breach of trust committed by Desmond.<\/p>\n
He noted the sexual abuse that took place under “the guise of physical chastisement” as an aggravating factor.<\/p>\n
He described Desmond as “brazen” in his abuse, which he committed during his “entire tenure” as principal.<\/p>\n
The abuse took place inside his office at the school, where he would beat the child with a metre stick while masturbating.<\/p>\n
As Judge O’Kelly gave his address, Desmond muttered “no, no, no” and “that\u2019s not true” from the defendant\u2019s box.<\/p>\n
Defence counsel Gareth Hayden referred to the accused\u2019s old age and frail health, saying that he was a man “close to the end”.<\/p>\n
Desmond received a headline sentence of five years, reduced by nine months to leave a sentence of four years and three months. The final year of the sentence was suspended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former principal of De La Salle National School in Waterford city has been sentenced to four years…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":669036,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-669035","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\/669035","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=669035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/669036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}