A Sunday school teacher who was described by his victim as “a monster” has been jailed for 4½ years for sexually abusing the boy more than 20 years ago.
Thomas Garvan (64), who has a previous conviction for a sexual offence, was a trusted family friend of the then 11-year old boy.
Garvan of of Corbally Glade, Westbrook Glen, Tallaght, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to seven sample charges of sexually abusing the boy on dates between December 1996 and October 1999. The victim was aged between 11 and 14 at the time.
The now 32-year-old man stated in his victim impact report: “How could a monster like that ruin kids’ lives. He has destroyed my life entirely and I can never get it back. My chance of getting a job, my chance of having a normal relationship with my children and partner are all destroyed.”
Taking cocaine
He said he started taking cocaine as it helped him to block out the abuse but it sent him “off the rails”. He said he had had several jobs but could not hold any of them down.
“I didn’t care about anything. I never had a meaningful relationship. I had an excessive interest in sex trying to show myself I was a real man.” He said he got two women pregnant in the same year. He had tried to commit suicide three times and he felt he never had the chance to grow into a man.
Garda Tom O’Riordan told Maddie Grant, prosecuting, that he was contacted in November 2014 by the mother of the victim. She said her son was not ready to speak to gardaí yet but she was looking for advice on how to deal with the situation.
Two months later the victim made a formal complaint to gardaí stating he had been abused many times in Garvan’s home when he was a young boy.
Garvan was given a two-year suspended sentence in June 2015 after he pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a different 11-year-old boy in May 2013. This sentence was partly reactivated after Garvan failed to co-operate with the Probation Service.