A SECONDARY school teacher who sent an anonymous letter falsely alleging that a male teaching colleague at a school in Limerick was a child abuser has escaped jail.
At Ennis District Court, Judge Alec Gabbett imposed a suspended two-month prison sentence on the married 42-year-old father of three young children.
The victim of two false letters sent by the County Clare accused man in the case said that his life was made “a living nightmare” by the “fictitious allegations” made up by his colleague.
Judge Alec Gabbett that the actions of the accused “could have had career-changing implications for the victim and I have to be mindful of that. I have to mark the seriousness of the events that took place.”
Solicitor, Daragh Hassett for the accused admitted that what his client did was harassment of a “vile” nature, but his client wasn’t a well man at the time the letters were sent.
In the case, the accused sent two anonymous handwritten letters to the Gardaí and their school principal, purporting to be students from an all-girls school, and 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”, Detective Garda Joe Cusack explained.
The father-of-three 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 on March 30, 2022, and when sending a second letter on May 25 2022 to the Limerick school.
Detective Garda Cusack said that he was able to identify the accused from CCTV at a local post office where he sent one of the letters.
Mr Hassett asked Judge Gabbett not to convict his client, which the judge described as a “big ask”.
Mr Hassett said that as a result of his client’s actions in sending the letters, he had left his teaching post by consent “with an otherwise glowing reference from the principal”.
He said that arising from this case and the ensuing publicity, his client in his new job was eventually disciplined “and it came as a surprise and a shock to him that he lost the previous support of this new principal and now that job is gone”.
Mr Hassett said the Garda prosecution along with a Teaching Council disciplinary process “is a natural consequence of what he did, and what he did was particularly ill judged, stupid, and nasty”.
Mr Hassett said his client pleaded guilty, has no previous convictions, paid €5,000 compensation to the victim, and has undergone medical treatment and counselling.
“This man wasn’t well – he is on medication – he was never on medication before. He is taking anxiety and depression tablets and tablets that allow him to sleep at night,” he said.
Mr Hassett said that the manner in which his client sent the anonymous letters “was the work of someone who doesn’t have a criminal mind”.
“If he was more savvy, he wouldn’t have physically walked into a post office himself.”
Judge Gabbett described the number of testimonials handed into court on behalf of the accused “as slightly overkill”.
Mr Hassett said that his client “has been humiliated locally – everyone knows about the case”.
In reply, Judge Gabbett said that “the victim has been humiliated here – being brought into work and accused of child sex abuse is also humiliating.”
Mr Hassett said that the context for sending the letters was that his client was “taunted and tormented” in the workplace, adding that the probation report on his client concluded that there was very little, if any, risk of re-offending.
Judge Gabbett fixed recognisance in the event of an appeal to the Circuit Court and
ordered that the accused not be identified in order to protect the identity of the injured party.
