The Central Criminal court today agreed to postpone the sentencing hearing for former Circuit Court Judge Gerard O’Brien. Mr O’Brien from Thurles was found guilty last December of the sexual abuse of six young men almost 30 years ago. Mr O’Brien resigned in January 2024.
At the time of the offences, which occurred between March 1991 and November 1997, Mr O’Brien was employed as a teacher in a Dublin Secondary school. The complainants – four of whom were his students – were then aged between 17 and 24. The other two complainants were living in Thurles at the time of the offences.
Garda commenced the investigation in 2019 which led to Mr O’Brien being charged in 2021 with one count of attempted rape and eight counts of sexual assault. Mr O’Brien had denied all of the charges against him.Mr O’Brien’s legal team outlined to the court today that a number of reports are outstanding and are not expected to be ready until mid-April and asked for a postponement of the original sentencing date of March 4th. Mr Justice Alexander Owens agreed to adjourn the sentence date to April 29th and remanded Mr O’Brien, who was not present in court, on continuing bail. Mr O’Brien was born without arms and with one leg as a result of the thalidomide drug and for this reason has not been remanded in custody.
