Clare man who sent 'fictitious allegations' about schoolteacher to gardai to be sentenced

A SECONDARY school teacher has told a court that his life was made “a living nightmare” by “fictitious allegations” made up by a colleague who sent two anonymous hand-written letters to the gardai and their school principal.

At Ennis District Court, Detective Garda Joe Cusack of Henry Street garda station in Limerick told the court that the letters purporting to be students from an all-girls school made reference to a named teacher, "alleging that he was looking at inappropriate content, including pictures of naked women on his phone while teaching in the classroom”.

Contemplating sentence in the case of the 42-year-old defendant who is from west Clare, the judge in the case said "there is no question that someone who sets about to destroy someone’s life with an anonymous letter should be punished”.

When the case first came before the court in September, the teacher who sent the anonymous letters and the school were named as there were no reporting restrictions imposed or sought.

However, the judge in the case has now ordered that the accused and the school not be named in order to preserve the anonymity of the victim who has not been named previously. 

The judge also stated that he himself should not be identified “so no one ties it back to where we were originally”.

The judge imposed reporting restrictions following an application by solicitor, Daragh Hassett for the accused. 

Mr Hassett said that the reporting from the previous day in court "has had a significant impact on the welfare of my client’s elderly parents, his wife and young children”.

In the case, the father-of-three has pleaded guilty to sending a grossly offensive communication to another person with intent to cause harm when sending a letter to Henry Street garda station in Limerick on March 30, 2022 and when sending a second letter on May 25, 2022 to the school.

Both charges are contrary to Section 4 of the Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Act 2020.

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Detective Garda Cusack said the accused told gardai during interview that he overheard students expressing concerns over the conduct of a teacher and he sent the anonymous letters rather than going down the formal route of contacting TUSLA or the school principal as this would ostracise him from his teaching colleagues.

The witness said that he was able to identify the accused from CCTV at a local post office where he sent one of the letters from.

The judge said that the “fantastic garda investigation” is a salutary lesson to those who send anonymous letters and who believe they won’t be caught".

The judge said “tracking and tracing the author of these letters was an amazing feat - extraordinary”.

The judge read out court excerpts from the victim impact statement where the victim said that his life was made "a living nightmare” by the “fictitious allegations” made up by the accused. 

Mr Hassett said that what his client did was “despicable” and “reprehensible” but told the judge that a conviction “would be career ending”.

Asking that his client not be convicted, Mr Hassett said: “I know it is a big ask”.

He told the court that his client has written a letter of apology to the victim and has no previous convictions.

Mr Hassett said: “He is married with children. He is a successful man, published author, Gaeilgeoir, an accomplished sportsman who represented his county."

He added that as a result of sending the letters his client lost his job after he and the principal agreed that he would effectively "walk away" away from the school.

Mr Hassett said that his client is now teaching in another school "and a conviction against him would make him unemployable because of garda vetting requirements”. 

He said: "He is a very good and well regarded teacher and wants to stay in that space. He is extremely sorry for what happened and will regret it for the rest of his life. His career now hangs in the balance.”

Mr Hassett said his client was "not well" from a mental health point of view when sending the letters. He said: "These were the actions of someone who was not well and sick. Something clearly went awry.”

The solicitor said the Probation Report on his client "was as good a Probation Report I have ever seen” which said that there was really ’nil risk’ of his client re-offending.

Mr Hassett said that his client had €5,000 compensation in court for the victim and that it could be paid over immediately.

The judge said that the court had received “a big bundle” of testimonials from people writing on behalf of the accused. He said: "There is a huge network of people who have all stumped up to write letters for him."

He said: "I am not totally convinced that a conviction will serve a purpose here other than lose a man his job and three children would suffer.”

However, the judge said that he was "very conscious of the victim and the public at large and there is no question that someone who sets about to destroy someone’s life with an anonymous letter should be punished - that is the issue”.

The judge said that he had in mind a three month prison sentence which he would suspend for two years.

However, he said he would adjourn the matter until next June to allow further monitoring.

In doing so, he said he was "not bottling" his decision.

"There is a character trait here that troubles me and it plays out in the number of testimonials I have. He must be very capable to get all these people to support him."