Irish Court Jails Ex-School Worker For Sexually Abusing 19 Boys

An Irish court has sentenced an 83-year-old former school worker to six and a half years in prison after he pleaded guilty to 132 charges of historic child sex offences involving 19 victims over a 25-year period.

Patrick Sharkey, who worked at St Joseph’s High School in Coleraine, Northern Ireland, admitted to the offences before Letterkenny Circuit Court in the Republic of Ireland. The charges relate to abuse committed between the 1970s and 1990s.

The court heard that many of the victims were pupils brought to County Donegal for weekend outdoor pursuits, including canoeing trips. Sharkey would take the boys to his parents’ home in Clonmany, where much of the abuse took place, though other offences occurred at addresses in Dublin.

The conviction is not Sharkey’s first. In 2023, a court in Northern Ireland jailed him for three years and four months after he pleaded guilty to nine counts of indecent assault on three boys between 1988 and 1998.

Jailing Sharkey, the judge said the offending was calculated, pre-meditated and predatory.

At an earlier sentencing hearing, victims described being made to share a bed with Sharkey during the canoeing trips and waking in the night to find him touching them.

Several victims, supported by family members, attended the sentencing hearing and described years of mental and emotional trauma.

One man thanked the 83-year-old for staying alive long enough to face justice.