May 2006

Paedophile teacher has jail term reduced

A TEACHER described as a “determined paedophile”, who indecently assaulted nine boys where he taught at a primary school, had a 12-year jail sentence reduced to nine years by the Court of Criminal Appeal yesterday.

Patrick Curran (60), who began teaching at St John’s National School, Temple Street, Sligo in July 1966, was found guilty by a Dublin Circuit Criminal Court jury last June of 192 counts of indecently assaulting nine boys aged from eight to 12 between September 1966 and June 1984.

He was jailed for 12 years by Judge Michael White who said the children were at the “mercy of their teacher who cruelly violated them”. He described Curran as “a determined paedophile”.

During the trial the court heard that Curran systematically searched out boys to sit beside. He would fondle their inside legs and genitalia on a “very regular basis”. The court heard that Curran denied all allegations when questioned during the investigation which began in 1999. A file was sent to the DPP in 1993 but no prosecution resulted.

July 2005

Sligo teacher jailed for 12 years for abuse

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’.