Guilty of exposure at Knock
Teen victim was in toilet
A 71-YEAR-old former Franciscan brother has been found guilty by a judge of exposing himself in front of an 18-year-old boy in a toilet cubicle near Knock Shrine in Co. Mayo. Christopher McCarthy, denied the offence before Judge Alan Mitchell at Castlebar District Court yesterday.
He also denied a charge of touching himself. And McCarthy denied beckoning the teenager to enter a toilet cubicle although, in an earlier statement to gardaí, he admitted doing so.
The man told the court he had travelled to Knock by bus on September 17, 2017, to celebrate the Feast Day of Padre Pio.
McCarthy, who left the Franciscan order more than three decades ago after 16 years in religious life, admitted knocking on the door of the toilet cubicle but said he had only done so because the other two cubicles were not very clean. He denied seeing the youngster enter the toilet.
Judge Mitchell imposed reporting restrictions which prohibit the naming of the victim.
However, the judge refused an application by defence solicitor John Cussen that McCarthy, of Sharwood Estate, Newcastle West, Co. Limerick, not be named due to the ‘profound effect it would have’ on him.
The victim said he was in a public toilet at the time when he heard what he described as ‘a soft knock’ on the door.
He added that when he emerged from the cubicle, he saw the man, whom he identified in court as McCarthy, ‘stimulating himself ’.
‘He went on: “I tried to hold the man by the coat until gardaí arrived. He told me he had a knife before he ran away. I chased him before contacting the gardaí.’
Judge Mitchell said the evidence of the injured party was the most credible and he was satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt to convict. He put back sentencing until later in the year to allow for the preparation of a Probation Report.
The matter will come before Judge Mitchell again on March 20.