A man with a long history of volunteer work who was formerly a sacristan at White Friar Street Church has been jailed for two years for the historic sexual abuse of three young boys.
The Circuit Criminal Court heard how James Gilleran, of Parkview Court, Blackhorse Avenue, Cabra, Dublin 7, would go around the Iveagh Trust flats on a bike recruiting young boys to be part of the 117th Francis St. Scouts, and how he “abused” this “position of trust” in order to get close to the children.
Although he was arrested in 2022 after the victims spotted him on the Late Late Show in 2021 where he appeared as part of his volunteer work as “Daffodil man’ for the Irish Cancer Society, the abuse dates back to the 1980s.
The RTÉ appearance triggered a “series of communication” between the victims who made statements to an Garda Síochána which resulted in an investigation being launched by the Divisional Protective Service Unit at Kevin Street Garda Station.
All three abuse survivors expressed a wish that they be named to raise awareness surrounding child sexual abuse.
Child abused in boiler room of White Friar Street church.
The first victim, Rory Patchell, described Gilleran as being “very generous” at first and described how he used to buy him gifts when he was 10- 15 years of age. One of the gifts was a basketball, and another was some arrows for a bow the child had.
Gilleran lived in a bedsit in Sundrive Park, Kimmage where he invited the child and proceeded to show him porn magazines featuring pictures of naked women which were produced from under a mattress.
Patchell described being brought to the boiler room of White Friar Street Church, where Gilleran was a sacristan at the time, where his private parts were touched over his trousers before Gilleran “masturbated himself”.
The victim expressed that he wasn’t sure what age he was when this happened to him.
On another occasion in 1985 on the day of a boxing match of Barry McGuigan, the Patchell went to stay the night at a hall where there was an event where children had been invited to sleep over.
The young boy said he went to make tea in the kitchen and that Gilleran had touched his genitals again, also over his trousers. He said he didn’t recall how this encounter had ended, but that he was 12 years of age at the time.
During a sponsored cycle to Longford, Gilleran had been invited to stay the night at the Patchell family home. The victim said that Gilleran had come into his room and touched his face “and stuff” on this occasion, the court heard.
Patchell delivered a short victim impact statement to the court in which he said he had been “groomed and sexually abused” at a time when there was “no counsellor and nobody to talk to”.
He said he had “suppressed the memories” and “survived” until “I saw him on national television”.
“I stand here as a survivor with all my life ahead of me with my loving wife and children, and you have nothing.” he said, addressing Gilleran in the dock.
Child pushed onto bed and assaulted.
The second victim of abuse at the hands of Gilleran was Stephen Devlin who also came into contact with him at the Iveagh Trust flats.
Devlin reported that Gilleran had licked his face amid which he had taken out his false teeth when the pair was at his flat. Gilleran pushed the child onto the bed and touched his backside on this occasion.
He asked the child to touch his penis, with Devlin saying that he could see it was erect but refused to touch it.
Devlin had joined the scouts at the age of 13.
Reading his victim impact statement before the court he said that Gilleran was “trusted “ and a “leader”.
“I trusted him completely, as did my mother,” he said, adding that she had believed that the abuser would provide “guidance and safety”.
“James approached me with a warm smile,” he said, adding that Gilleran was “ like the Pied Piper of the 117th scouts.”
He said Gilleran had “fooled” him and his parents by “presenting as someone who cared for boys”.
“The effects of his betrayal have had lifelong consequences,” he said, which have meant that “moments of joy and innocence” in his life have been “overshadowed by what happened”.
He said that he had realised that the abuse was not his fault as he got older, but that his trust in people “has been shattered”.
He said that he questions if his own children are “safe and secure”, and recalled how his own mother had to live with “knowing that her trust in the scouts” had led to her son “being damaged”.
Child given pornographic magazines and beer at flat of abuser.
The third victim, Greg Stafford, was 11 years old when his abuse took place.
The court heard that Gilleran had taken him to the cinema to see Splash and that he had bought the child drinks and popcorn.
After this he went to Gilleran’s flat where he was given a can of beer and pornographic magazines to look at.
The victim recalled that Gilleran had asked him to tell him what he thought of the magazines, but that he had only been interested in the football that was on the television.
He described how Gilleran had stood up and held the boy’s hand on his crotch area before putting his own hand on the victim’s crotch and began to breathe into his ear and lick his face.
“It’s ok, all the lads do this,” he told the child.
The evidence read before the court said that the victim went to the door and said he wanted to go home, and that Gilleran had walked him to the bus stop where he left him alone.
Stafford said that he could still feel his abuser’s breath on his face “all those years later”, and that he had “gone home and cried his eyes out”.
In his victim impact statement, Stafford described how he hid the abuse from his mother as he thought she would be “disappointed” in him, but that “trying to keep it secret” caused him mental health problems.
He recalled being an innocent child who was “left at a bus stop to find my way home crying,”.
explaining how the abuse, “never leaves you”, he recalled attempts on his own life and that he had been committed to St. Brendan’s after putting his family “through hell” and that his own four kids are not allowed to join or be part of clubs,.
He recalled how his mother had “blamed herself for the remainder of her life,” adding, “It literally broke her heart,”.
“Our last conversation was her still telling me she was sorry” and him telling her it was neither of their fault, he said.
“Even though it was one day of abuse, a person’s life is destroyed in many different ways,” he said.
“The pain is so real that it ruins lives”
Arrest and interview at Kevin St. Garda Station.
Gilleran was arrested on the 6th of July 2022 arrested and taken to Kevin St. where he did not accept any wrongdoing, the court heard.
He has one previous conviction for a sexual assault contrary to section 2 of the Criminal Law (Rape) (Amendment) Act, 1990 which dates back to 1994 when he received a 4 year prison sentence which was reduced to 2 years on appeal, of which one and a half years was actually served in jail.
This assault involved an individual who was attending a Cerebral palsy clinic who Gilleran had helped to the bathroom, and in doing so kissed the victim on the mouth and touched his penis outside his trousers.
Gilleran’s defending counsel said that his client is a gay man but hid his sexuality before entering into a civil partnership with a man named Tony in 2011, who has since passed away. He has a range of medical issues and experienced a “significant cardiac event”.
He now accepts his wrongdoing and has written a letter of remorse.
Gilleran entered into a psychiatric ward in 1987 for a period, the court heard.
Sentence
Judge Orla Crowe said that all of the children Gilleran abused had been “entrusted to his care” and that they were “young and innocent”.
She said that the impact “clearly has had ramifications through the lives of those people” even if abuse was one day calling it a “gross violation of children”, and of their “bodily autonomy”.
The abuse was also a violation of their “trust” and “happiness”, she said.
“They were children, they were small, they were innocent,” she said.
She said that the abuse was “very predatory and included the use of alcohol and porn”, and that the offending was “inherently serious” and “must be marked with a custodial sentence”.
She pointed to the previous sexual assault conviction as an aggravating factor, while taking into consideration his age, that he had ultimately pleaded guilty, his remorse, and his “considerable medical difficulties” as mitigation.
Noting that the maximum sentence for the offending imposed on counts 1,2,3,4,and 6, of the indictment, she set a headline sentence of 4 years before sentencing Gilleran to 2 year sentences for the offending to run concurrently.