Ireland: Br Anatole convicted of indecently assaulting boys at Letterfrack industrial school

Proceedings

1. 2002-01-01 · guilty plea and conviction

   Ireland — criminal prosecution (court not stated in the Commission's text) with findings by the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse (Ryan Report, 2009), Vol. 1 Ch. 8. Br Anatole, who worked at Letterfrack during the late 1960s and early 1970s and left the Congregation under a dispensation from his vows in the early 1980s, pleaded guilty to sample counts of indecent assault against three named boys and received a suspended sentence. None of the three complainants gave evidence to the Investigation Committee; the Christian Brothers disputed aspects of Br Anatole's own account of his time at Letterfrack, but the conviction itself was not contested.

Documented coercion mechanisms

• religious-order custody of boys with no independent advocate
• the boys' inability to report abuse without risking punishment for 'telling lies'