Woman says that she was abused by priest at school

A 28-YEAR-OLD woman who claims she was sexually abused by a former priest and teacher at a County Wexford school over a period of three years has launched a High Court action for damages.

Her counsel, Jack Fitzgerald, told the High Court in Dublin the alleged abuse began when the girl was a Transition Year student and lasted for three years.

‘He exploited her continually and regularly,’ Mr Fitzgerald, a senior counsel, said.

The priest has claimed revenge is the motivation behind the claims

The woman has sued the priest as well as the school and Bishop of Ferns, Denis Brennan. They have denied the claims.

The woman has claimed that for three years she was repeatedly and wrongfully physically and sexually assaulted, falsely imprisoned and sexually abused and subjected to sexualised behaviour by the man in her secondary school.

She has alleged that on a school trip when she was 16 years of age, the priest invited her and another student to sleep in his bed with him. The three of them spent the night together in his bed, she has claimed.

The priest, she has claimed, was very attentive to her on the trip and after that sent her private text messages.

She has also claimed the priest continued to send private text messages to her and they became increasingly personal and sexual in nature. She has alleged the priest bought a mobile phone for the specific purpose of texting her and that the priest allegedly advised her they would wait until she was 17 before they could take the relationship further.

She claimed that after she turned 17 years of age,the priest brought the girl and some friends to the cinema before later taking her home where he kissed her.

It is claimed intimate physical contact would occur on the school premises after school, and at the priest’s house. It is claimed the physical contact developed and progressed from kissing and cuddling to oral sex.

She has claimed the priest was held in high regard by everyone and she was unable to discuss the relationship with anyone and she felt pressurised by the priest to have sexual intercourse with him.

It is alleged that by the time the girl was in Leaving Cert year she was having sexual contact with the priest about once a week. The priest ended the relationship with the girl in February of sixth year and stopped talking to her.

Opening the case, Mr Fitzgerald said the woman first made her allegations in 2011 and the school board of management conducted an inquiry and found there had been no sexual contact between the two. A later assessment found the priest to be a low risk.

The court heard that the priest told the school hearing that at one stage he pleaded with the girl to stop and and rejected her by telling her to ‘f*** off’. ‘I wanted to get out from under her clutches,’ he said.

A transcript of the disciplinary hearing at the school in October 2012 was read to the High Court last week.

The man, who left the priesthood a few years ago, told the disciplinary hearing the motivation behind the allegations was ‘revenge for not going with her.’ He also said: ‘I see obsession all over this.’

The priest said about 15 students had been picked to go on the school trip. He said he let students use the shower attached to his room but it was in the context of returning after a day and being covered in dirt.

‘It had nothing to do with anything of a sexual nature,’ he said.

On the allegation that the girl and another student had been in his bed with him once on the trip, he said he woke up and saw somebody beside him and he jumped out of the bed, opened the door and asked them to leave. At no point he said were they there at his invitation. He said he had brought students on about 40 trips and nothing like that happened before.

He said he never had sex with the girl or any other student.

The case before Mr Justice Robert Eagar continues on Tuesday.