Sligo teacher jailed for 12 years for abuse 22 July 2005 19:27 A 59-year-old Co Sligo school teacher, Patrick Curran, has been jailed for 12 years for indecently assaulting nine boys over an 18-year period. Curran, who was a teacher at St John's National School in Sligo, was convicted of 192 counts of indecent assault from 1966 to 1984. He has also been placed on the sex offenders' register for life, and denied leave to appeal. Judge Michael White described Curran as a determined paedophile who cruelly violated the trust of children in his care in a calculated, deceitful and clever way. Curran had consistently denied the 192 charges, describing them as preposterous. His trial heard how he selected certain boys and indecently assaulted them as they sat at their desks. Today Curran's victims told the court the abuse had destroyed their lives and destroyed their trust in other people. One victim said he had blamed himself for the abuse. He thought he had been singled out because he had lost a football match. The victim told the court he believed Curran was evil, saying that Curran 'played God, singled out the weakest and thought we would never tell'. http://www.rte.ie/news/2005/0722/curranp.html |