A judge of the Circuit Court has been found guilty of sexual assault of six young men, four of whom were students at the school where he was then a schoolteacher prior to becoming a judge.
Gerard O’Brien, 59, from Thurles in Co Tipperary, is currently a Circuit Court judge, and was formerly State solicitor for north Tipperary. He was born with no arms and only one leg as a result of the drug thalidomide.
He had pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to one charge of attempted rape and eight charges of sexual assault in relation to six young men on dates between March 1991 and November 1997.
At the time of the offences, O’Brien was in his 30s, while his six victims were aged between 17 and 24.
He at first denied sexual contact with any of the victims, but he later claimed to gardaí that consensual sexual activity had taken place with three of the six complainants. He denied any wrongdoing in all cases.
However, ten members of the jury took just over seven-and-a-half hours to reach guilty verdicts on all nine charges against the judge.
Judge convicted of sexually assaulting six males on dates in the 1990s when he was a teacher – @MaryCarolanIT reports
Gerard O’Brien was appointed a Circuit Court judge in 2014https://t.co/mINZ2KdTjM via @IrishTimes
— Simon Carswell (@SiCarswell) December 22, 2023
The prosecution said that O’Brien had groomed the young men and developed inappropriate relationships with certain students. He then gave them alcohol and brought them to the pub.
For 5 of the young men that ended up in them staying with O’Brien and waking up to find themselves being molested and sexually assaulted.
One of the young men was sexually assaulted in a pub toilet.
Three of the victims were aged between 17 and 18 and were students at the time, while another was a 19-year-old former student at the school. The two other victims, aged 18 and 24 at the time knew O’Brien from his home town.
The judge said that O’Brien is now on the sex offenders register. He will be sentenced March 4th.
Minister Helen McEntee said she would be asking the Attorney General to advise on the next steps regarding the judge.
“My thoughts are with the victim. These are appalling cases of sexual assault, I thank them for coming forward,” she said in a statement this evening.
“I have been clear that we have a lot of work to do to achieve my aim of zero-tolerance in our society for all forms of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence.
“Part of that is clearly demonstrating that nobody, no matter what position they hold in our society, is above the law or immune from prosecution for such crimes. Today is clear proof of that,” the Justice Minister said.