A KILDARE primary school vice principal has denied 22 charges of sexual assault and assault on six boys. The trial in Dublin Circuit Criminal Court is being held using video link and might run into next week.
One of the alleged victims, who is now 14, told Judge Kevin Haugh and the jury that he had thought what happened was right but he didn't like it. He was too scared to tell his parents at the time but informed gardai four years later when investigations began.
Another boy, who was nine when he claims he was sexually assaulted twice on the same day in 1995, said he agreed with the accused man it was their "secret" but told his mother first and then his father that evening.
In cross examination by defence counsel, Mr Erwan Mill Arden SC, the boy agreed that, while he wasn't clear about some details, "I remember it now and I will for the rest of my life. I do not say that very often but big things like this do not happen very often."
Prosecuting counsel, Mr Denis Vaughan Buckley SC, in his outline of the case, said there would be evidence that the accused man called another alleged victim his "little pet" and "little flower".
Some of the common assault charges arose from allegations that he hugged and kissed two of the boys, Mr Buckley said. The charges involve touching and other bodily contact alleged to have happened in the classroom and a cloakroom.
The now 11 year old boy, who alleges he was sexually assaulted twice in January 1995, said it happened first during an Irish class and then in the mathematics class.
The now 14 year old boy said the accused man sexually assaulted him at least twice a week by fondling him.
He agreed with Mr Mill Arden he told gardai the accused man often gave him 30p or 50p on those occasions, but accepted now that the money he got was change from messages done for him.
A third boy told the jury the accused man fondled him twice or three times every day. He said that when he told the man to stop, he struck him with a ruler and bruised his arm near his left shoulder. He showed this mark to his mother some weeks later.
The boy told Mr Mill Arden his mother wrote out his allegations on a piece of paper. Counsel noted this witness told gardai there were other boys in the room at the time of the alleged sex offence and striking with the ruler.
The hearing continues.