Former school principal who abused young boys during 'formative years' jailed

Declan Brennan and Sonya McLean

A former school principal described by a judge as “a sexual predator” who abused young boys in their “formative years” has been jailed for four years.

Patrick Harte (84) was employed as a teacher at Sancta Maria Christian Brothers school on Synge Street, Dublin, from 1967 to 2007, latterly as a principal. This fourth set of prosecutions brings to 89 his number of convictions for sexual or indecent assaults of young boys.

After a trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court last December, a jury convicted Harte of 17 counts of indecent or sexual assault committed against boys in various date ranges between 1969 and 1986. Harte, of Glendown Park, Templeogue, Dublin 6, had pleaded not guilty to all charges and continues to deny any offending.

The eight victims in this case bring to 32 the number of boys abused by Harte. Harte does not accept the verdict of the jury and maintains his innocence.

Sentencing Harte on Wednesday, Judge Martina Baxter said that the offences were repetitive and continued in “a brazen fashion”.

She said they occurred in a classroom that had an atmosphere of “physical punishment and fear” and said the young boys were humiliated, being abused in public in front of their classmates.

Baxter commended the victims for coming forward and giving evidence during trial, noting that some of them travelled from abroad and others travelled from other areas of Ireland.

She described the victim impact statements provided to the court as “eloquent” and “poignant” and said they were a powerful reminder of how such traumas impact children.

The judge told counsel that she had received a letter from Harte. She said it was “very inappropriate for a trial judge to be contacted by the accused”. She handed the letter to both prosecuting and defence barristers and said she does not intend to read it.

Garrett McCormack, defending, told the judge that Harte instructs, following a brief consultation this morning, that he wrote to her because he didn’t get the opportunity to address her previously at the sentence hearing.

Baxter said Harte had addressed her previously, but at that time, he spoke of the previous trials. She said she has no concern with the other cases, only the case that is currently before her, and she said she has no intention of being addressed by Harte.

She said Harte was “in a trusted position” and “he exploited his position to abuse” the children. She said the offences represented a “significant breach of trust” and there was “often a degree of repetition and pre-planning involved”.

Judge Baxter said Harte had shown a “lack of remorse and contrition”. She noted his previous attempts to address the court and said, “in that brief interlude he tried to make reference to previous complainants” – complainants who were not involved in the current case.

She said Harte is very familiar with the court process and maintained in evidence before the jury that he never abused a child, despite the earlier convictions from the previous trials.

Judge Baxter said Harte has “no prospect of rehabilitation”.

She noted that there was a change in legislation during the offending period, which increased the penalty available to the court from a maximum of two years to one of 10 years.

Judge Baxter imposed various different sentences and ordered that all of those sentences should be concurrent to each other. The effective sentence is a prison term of four years.

She did not suspend any part of the sentence as she said: “there is no evidence of remorse or insight, no evidential basis to justify a suspended sentence”.