Documentary record Bound by Fear
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Conviction New Age and human-potential movements Dublin, Ireland · 2019

Ireland: Transcendental Meditation teacher jailed for indecent assault of a child at the Dublin centre

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

Transcendental Meditation teacher at the movement's Dublin centre

Organization

Transcendental Meditation Centre, Dublin

Spiritual nexus

The child was embedded in the movement through his parents' membership and worked at its centre under the defendant's supervision; that teacher-and-supervisor role within the organisation is what created the access.

  • Guru or spiritual-teacher authority
  • Institutional obedience or isolation

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 2019-05-20 · conviction and sentence

    Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, Ireland. Bernard Ward, a Transcendental Meditation teacher, was convicted of three counts of indecent assault against a child who had begun working at the Dublin TM Centre at the age of ten after his parents trained there. He was acquitted on a fourth count relating to a different location.

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • supervisory authority over a child working at the centre his parents had joined

Primary record

Sources

national newspaper court reporting verdict and sentencing report 'Former meditation teacher jailed for sexual attacks on child', The Irish Times, 20 May 2019.

Ireland's paper of record reports the three convictions, the acquittal on the fourth count, and the centre setting.

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