The sexual abuser who was born with Thalidomide defects.

political analyst

https://www.rte.ie/news/courts/2024/0531/1452317-gerard-o-brien/

The perpetrator, who had, after quitting teaching, become a solicitor and then a judge, used his disability to take advantage of pupils.

I'm used to hearing of cases in which the perpetrators of the sexual abuse of young people were teachers or other persons in authority but I find it difficult to comprehend that someone born with Thalidomide defects would have the premeditation to commit such crimes because, given the physical and psychological difficulties that are caused by those defects, one would've assumed that sex would be the last thing on the mind of someone who was born with those defects.

Jim_Hodge

What you're basically demonstrating is that you haven't even a basic understanding of thalidomide.

Edit…the more I think of you, you have been quite insulting towards disabled people.

Victor

Maybe you need to take a break from the internet, it would make it a smarter place.

Witcher

Another quality thread from the OP.

Jequ0n

Why would someone with a disability be less inclined to fulfil their sexual urges? Did you think that he’d spend his day pondering what his life would be like with arms and an extra leg?

Strange article btw. I wonder why the victims are referred to as “boys” when their ages ranged between 17 and 24.

elperello

A sad case.

It was tried, it's over.

political analyst

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122208529#Comment_122208529

Are you saying that being born with Thalidomide defects has no psychological effect on the person born with those defects?

spurious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122210197#Comment_122210197

And what, they decided becase they had a disability they would sexually assault young people? How insulting to people with disabilities.

Purple Mountain

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122210197#Comment_122210197

Of course it would have massive psychological effects on someone but that does not absolve them from becoming a sexual predator.

Apples and oranges.

tohaltuwi

People with disabilities are as ordinarily sexual as anybody unless there is a specific associated issue involving that department. Abusing people to get your sexual kicks is not being ordinarily sexual and disability is no excuse for it.

Having no upper limbs no doubt does add challenges to the practicalities of gaining sexual pleasure, but to use people unable to consent is not on.

I imagine, as a child he may have been subject to abuse himself, but neither does that either absolve him from the wrongdoing aspect of doing it unto others.

political analyst

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122210204#Comment_122210204

That's not what I meant. My point is the assumption that someone born with those defects would be less inclined to even think of committing sexual abuse.

political analyst

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122210252#Comment_122210252

I never suggested that it was an excuse.

tohaltuwi

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122210274#Comment_122210274

I wasn’t particularly suggesting you did, I was just emphasising in general that it is never an excuse.

highpitcheric

Interesting title OP.

JP Liz V1

The ba$tard deserves life in prison no matter his condition

Brussels Sprout

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122208537#Comment_122208537

Not for the victims it isn't, unfortunately.

elperello

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122210428#Comment_122210428

I was referring to the legal side of it.

No disrespect intended to anyone affected.

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122210269#Comment_122210269

…what the fcuking hell!

…people who commit such crimes generally have significant psychological issues and disabilities, fact!

Mrs OBumble

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122210269#Comment_122210269

And why would you assume that?

Duke of Schomberg

I read about this case, in the Irish Post rag. As a retired Teacher and Sixth-Form College Lecturer I just don't understand how, with no arms, you could be an effective teacher. Also what sort of student is persuaded to think that it is acceptable to help his teacher go to the toilet? - my response would have been two short words - or even go home, and to bed, with his teacher . . . come on, the victims need to accept that their own weak-mindedness played some part in all of this. But the article also suggested that the school could have done more to support him by asking his colleagues to help with his toileting problems - eh!? my response would have been two short words followed by the advice to have a colostomy bag and a catheter fitted so that he could have it sorted out when he got home. Really quite bizarre.

Jequ0n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122210402#Comment_122210402

nonsense.

Jequ0n

I couldn’t agree more with you. It’s a very strange story.

Boggles

Strangest Thread Title I've seen.

The Opening Post is weirder.

Leg End Reject

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122210204#Comment_122210204

His defence actually said he wanted a relationship but was always rebuffed, that he was lonely etc. The judge didn't buy it though.

It's an awful case, I'm still shocked that pupils were expected to bring him to the toilet in school and to spend the night in his house to meet his care needs. Imagine going home with a teacher to help them on and off the toilet, wipe their arse, undress them, sleep in the bed beside them and dress them in the morning along with helping them eat and drink - what the actual fcuk?

Purple Mountain

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122210824#Comment_122210824

You're victim blaming. The victims were teenagers and this was back in the 90s when sexual abuse knowledge and education were nowhere near where they are now. Hindsight is a wonderful tool!

eightieschewbaccy

Sweet Jesus at the direction this thread is going. The perpetrator was found guilty by a jury and they would have gotten far more info than anyone choosing to victim blame.

Jequ0n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122211651#Comment_122211651

Don’t you think it’s worth asking how and why the perpetrator was able to carry out his actions in the first place? Surely this is critical to establish to avoid it happening again.

Citizen Six

I know it was the 90s, but I think the bigger issue here is how other teachers knew what was going on, and that he had inappropriate relationships with pupils, but did nothing about it.

Mrs OBumble

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122211564#Comment_122211564

The 90s wasn't that long ago.

Management should have known better by then.

Purple Mountain

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122211841#Comment_122211841

It was 30 years ago when teachers/clerics were still on a pedestal and trusted unconditionally.

political analyst

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122210641#Comment_122210641

They generally don't have physical disabilities as serious as Thalidomide defects.

political analyst

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122210968#Comment_122210968

I did this OP because this case stands out. I haven't heard of any other sexual abuser having been born with physical defects as severe as those caused by Thalidomide.

John_Rambo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122211887#Comment_122211887

A peadophile is a peadophile. Some are short, some are tall, some are fat, some are thin, some have mental conditions, some have physical conditions, some are perfectly fit.

What's confusing?

Tombo2001

Another instance of boards.ie absolutely covering itself in glory with quality of discourse on show -

Jay

Sus.

Calahonda52

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122211859#Comment_122211859

more kids were not listened to, by church or state

take the industrial scale paedophile schools where children were lifted off the street and sent there on a whim, to feed the industrial scale abuse system, which was numbers funded ,

Calahonda52

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058354091/the-sexual-abuser-who-was-born-with-thalidomide-defects

what a load of boXXo

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_MacMurrough_Kavanagh

the mother was a visionary for this, by not let him into potty party victim mood

His mother insisted that he be brought up and have opportunities like any other child[4] and placed him in the care of the doctor Francis Boxwell, who believed that an armless and legless child could live a productive life.

Mrs OBumble

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122218882#Comment_122218882

In the 1990s?

The last laundry closed in 1996, I thought the schools closed well before that.

It's an unfortunate reality for many victims of sexual abuse that their abusers are often protected by other family members or carers or society in general. It's a dynamic that's pervasive in dealing with crimes of a sexual nature and why so many cases of abuse never get heard.

We have an image of the ideal abuser, usually a man with a history of criminal behavior, violence and possible addiction and mental health issues and the perfect victim, generally a viginally innocent woman unable to defend herself from a much stronger and more violent offender.

The reality is usually much closer to that in the case outlined above. There are blurred lines and victim blaming, infused with shame embarrassment and guilt. Often the predatory behaviour has been sanctioned and legitimised and in that way normalised to the extent that the victims barely recognise that what happened was actual abuse.

Disabilty often implies either silently or overtly a level of mitigation ,either out of sympathy or an erroneous sense of lack of culpability but to address the specific issue of disabilty and sexual abuse in this context, I imagine it was due to the fact that he was considered responsible and capable enough to be held accountable due to his academic and lofty social standing. Otherwise unfortunately, this would just be another case of sympathy for the devil.

political analyst

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122219289#Comment_122219289

That's an historic outlier because AMcMK lived and died long before Thalidomide was invented and there's no indication that he went against the will of the women he had sex with.

political analyst

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122226262#Comment_122226262

Is the last part of your concluding sentence a Rolling Stones reference?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122227617#Comment_122227617

Wasn't my intention but that tune licks

woo woo

Norrie Rugger Head

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058354091/the-sexual-abuser-who-was-born-with-thalidomide-defects

What the hell is wrong with you to come up with this?

Grayson

I have to admit, when i first heard about the charges and the perpetrator, I was a bit baffled. I didn't doubt that the people accusing him had valid reason to accuse him. I just wondered with his birth defects how he managed to do it.

Then the rest of the information came out and i was even more disgusting.

Hotblack Desiato

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122210824#Comment_122210824

'weak-mindedness', really?

They were minors and you are victim-blaming. A thoroughly despicable post of which you should be ashamed.

Quantum Erasure

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122255476#Comment_122255476

the victims were aged between 17 and 24 years old.

Hotblack Desiato

Four of the six boys were students or former students of his at the time at CBC Monkstown in south Dublin.

Look up 'grooming'

Also one cannot consent to sexual acts while one is asleep

Hotblack Desiato

That's a very odd victim-blaming mentality. You should be asking why any adult would ask such a perverse thing.

political analyst

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122255619#Comment_122255619

Why would parents have let their sons stay at his house overnight? Why would parents let their children stay overnight in the home of a teacher who is not related to them?

I know that he said in that Radio 1 documentary that pupils had no problem with helping him go to the toilet but why did parents not say, regardless of his disability, "That's inappropriate. There should be a professional care worker assigned to help him with the toilet"?

ah sure he's just a poor man with birth defects, God love him. That kind of thing I imagine.

Hotblack Desiato

Very different attitudes in those days and a lot of naivete among parents.

There was a court case recently in relation to historic abuse where a young boy was sent to stay overnight with the local priest as he was "unwell" and the parents thought nothing of this. That would seem totally bizarre now, but apparently not 40 years ago.