A young man defiled by his female teacher when he was a teenager has settled a personal injury claim against the teacher, the school and an education board, we can exclusively reveal.
The man, who was defiled by the then 23-year-old teacher on two occasions when he was 16 years of age, initiated the personal injury action a number of years ago and it is understood that it was settled in recent months.
The personal injury claim against the teacher, the secondary school she taught in and the education board, came after the teacher was jailed for one year in what a judge described as an “abuse of her position of trust and authority.”
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“It was completely unethical and immoral” for a teacher to have sexual relations with a student, Judge Martin Nolan said when sentencing the teacher in 2019.
The woman has since been released from prison after serving a year jail term.
At the sentencing hearing in 2019, the boy said he had developed psychological problems and severe life-threatening depression following, what he believed, was a relationship with the teacher. He said his anxiety followed him like a “black cloud hanging over me and sometimes the black cloud is shaped like a dog, barking.”
He said he found it difficult to talk about things and felt stressed and under pressure, the court heard.
The woman, who was a substitute English teacher, waited until the boy’s 16th birthday before engaging in sexual activity on a date in early 2018 because she believed that was the legal age of consent.
The woman, who can’t be identified to protect the identity of the victim, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to two counts of defilement in early 2018. The offences took place at Gormanston Beach in Co Meath and at the Carlton Hotel, Tyrrelstown in Dublin.
The sexual activity between the teacher and the boy came to light when the boy’s mother became aware her son was in a relationship, the court had heard at the sentencing hearing four years ago.
She began to question why he was reluctant in bringing his girlfriend home. After speaking with a neighbour and one of the boy’s friends, the boy’s mother found out the boy was “seeing a teacher who was a lot older than him”, the court heard.
The mother was given a photograph of the teacher and she went to the school and spoke with the principal before reporting the matter to gardai.
Detective Garda Stephen Hughes told prosecuting counsel the teacher was spoken to by the principal and her teaching contract with the school was terminated. The teacher engaged with Tulsa and made admissions, the court heard.
The teacher was arrested in Dublin Airport in October 2018 when she was returning to Ireland from Europe and made full admissions.
She told gardai she was “aware of the age difference but we didn’t care. I look young and he was in an Over 18’s nightclub. I wasn’t concerned.”
When the gardai put it to her that the boy claimed they were boyfriend and girlfriend, her reply was: “Yeah, we were seeing each other and not seeing anyone else.”
Defence counsel James Dwyer, BL, told the court: “She didn’t know the law. It is not an excuse but she thought the age of consent was 16 so she waited until his 16th birthday.”
The Teaching Council of Ireland was successful in seeking a permanent order to prevent the woman from teaching in the future. The woman was also placed on the Sex Offenders Register.
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