The DPP is not proceeding with the prosecution of a Christian Brother on 19 charges of indecent assault against a boy in a residential school. However, two offences of gross indecency allegedly carried out by the Brother on another boy remain outstanding.
The complaint which led to the 19 charges being preferred against the Brother was first made in 1995. The Brother was interviewed by gardai two years later and in 1998.
He was charged in July 1999 and took judicial review proceedings seeking an order prohibiting his prosecution on all 21 charges.
Ms Siobhan Ni Chualachain, for the Brother, now in his 60s, applied to the High Court yesterday for an order restraining the DPP from proceeding with the 19 indecent assault charges, the first of which date back to 1963 and the last to 1968. She agreed the DPP had previously offered an undertaking to that effect but said her client was under considerable stress because of the matter, which had received much media attention.
Counsel said her client denied all charges and there was no good reason for the delay in bringing complaints which had seriously prejudiced his defence and right to a fair trial.
Mr Anthony Collins, for the DPP, repeated the undertaking in relation to the 19 charges which counsel had first given to the court last April. On that occasion, Mr Collins said the DPP would not be proceeding on the grounds it would be unsafe to do so.
Yesterday, counsel said the DPP was not seeking to proceed on the 19 charges because another former inmate of the industrial school who was said to have witnessed what was described as a "traumatic" and "memorable" incident of physical and sexual abuse against the complainant had been tracked down and had no recollection of such an incident.
Mr Justice Kelly said the DPP's undertaking was as effective as any injunction the court could grant. He issued directions in relation to advancing the Brother's judicial review proceedings in which the Brother is seeking to prevent his trial on the outstanding two charges of gross indecency. Those alleged offences date back some 30 years.
