An ex-Christian Brother has been acquitted by direction of Judge Tony Hunt of sexually assaulting boys some 40 years ago in a Galway industrial school.
Judge Hunt withdrew all 35 charges from the jury on day-11 of the trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
The 72-year-old accused had pleaded not guilty to the 35 counts of indecently assaulting six boys between 1967 and 1973 when they were residents at the school.
Judge Hunt thanked the jury of five men and five women for their patience and attention in the case and told them that there was significant inconsistency between the evidence given by witnesses in the trial and the statements they made to gardai, and inconsistencies between some witnesses and documentary evidence.
He said he felt that in those circumstances the jury, properly charged by the judge, would not be able to safely convict beyond a reasonable doubt.
Judge Hunt said there was "no doubt that many of the men in this case have unhappy lives" but told the jury a case can not be decided on sympathy.
His decision to direct that not guilty verdicts be returned on all the charges came following several days of legal submissions from defence counsel, Mr Hugh Hartnett SC (with Mr Philip Rhan BL ) and prosecuting counsel, Mr Eanna Mulloy SC (with Mr Fergal Foley BL ).
The jury heard during the trial rial that a social worker investigating the case had previously worked at the school and was "extremely anticlerical".
Judge Hunt called retired Superintendent Jim Sugrue as a witness for the court "in the interests of justice" after it emerged Mr Sugrue had written to the Director of Public Prosecutions outlining his concern that witnesses were being "coached" before they made their statements.
Judge Hunt questioned Mr Sugrue about a letter, written in November 1995, in which Mr Sugrue stated that the social worker, Mr Gerry Flanagan, had worked in the school in the late seventies as a "house parent" but had left "under a cloud."
He then left the area and became a social worker with the Western Health Board. He began visiting the school again in 1982 but was soon barred from the property by officials.
Case cannot be decided on sympathy
Mr Sugrue said in the letter Mr Flanagan investigated abuse at the school on behalf of the Health Board and that he and another social worker, Mr Paddy Gannon, "trawled" the country for complainants and were successful in finding several.
He said he believed Mr Flanagan had a "fixation" with the school and was "extremely anticlerical", as demonstrated by two letters he wrote to the Irish Press newspaper concerning clerical abuse.
He said Mr Flanagan had come to his office in November 1994 to report the abuse at the school and told him there were five assailants and 12 victims and that there had been buggery "on a large scale".
In the meeting he refused to name any of the complainants but Mr Sugrue said he believed this was for confidentiality reasons and that "there was nothing sinister about it."
After this meeting, gardai took 31 statements from former pupils and none mentioned "buggery or serious sexual abuse". When Mr Sugrue put this to Mr Flanagan, he claimed he had never made the buggery comment.
The power of suggestion cannot be overlooked
Mr Sugrue said the former pupils did allege instances of "fondling" and two attempted instances of oral sex "which were serious in themselves", but they did not mention penetrative sex.
Mr Sugrue also told the DPP he was aware that Mr Flanagan and another social worker, Mr Jim Mansfield, had counselling sessions with all of the complainants before they made their garda statements. He said on two occasions witnesses came to gardai with prepared statements after meeting with them.
Mr Sugrue said he warned Mr Flanagan that it was a police investigation and that witnesses should come forward voluntarily. He said he was very concerned that witnesses were being coached and told Mr Flanagan this several times.
In another letter to the DPP, Mr Sugrue said he was concerned about "false memory syndrome", a theory that adults could mistakenly remember instances of child sex abuse in their past.
"The power of suggestion cannot be overlooked," he stated in the letter.
Mr Sugrue said Mr Flanagan had been taken off the case by the Health Board in 1995 but had continued to write him letters asking why the investigation was taking so long. This caused Mr Sugrue to reply that Mr Flanagan had no more function in the investigation and his enquiries were "impertinent".
Detective Garda Patrick Heskin told Mr Hartnett that a complainant not related to the charges in this case had alleged he was abused by three Brothers, including the accused, but it was proven that one of the Brothers named did not exist and the other was not at the school at the same time as the accused.
It was also discovered that no one matching the complainant's details had ever attended the school.
Det Gda Heskin said he believed the accusations emanated from the complainant attending a meeting of abuse victims where they talked about their experiences. He said he made the allegations in a letter to gardai "which may have been written on his behalf before he signed it".
