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By order of the High Court (O'Donovan J.) made on 24 th September, 2001 leave was given to the applicant to seek by way of judicial review certain reliefs, including an injunction or order of prohibition to prevent the respondent from further prosecuting the applicant in respect of eight counts of indecent assault on a male complainant which are alleged to have occurred between January, 1967 and December, 1968 at a time when the applicant was a teacher in a national school in the midlands in which the complainant was a pupil.
The grounds relied upon in bringing the present application are those of delay in bringing forward any complaint, the same having been first made only on 13 th May, 1999, some 31 or 32 years after the alleged events. The applicant further contends that he has suffered such a degree of prejudice in consequence of this delay that there is now an unavoidable risk of an unfair trial and an infringement of his constitutional right to a fair trial. No issue of prosecutorial delay arises on the facts of the present case.
The complainant was born on 9 th June, 1960 and was aged between 6 and 8 years at the time of the alleged offences. The applicant is a married man with three children who has been a teacher all his life. He commenced teaching in 1964 and is still teaching at the present time, although he is currently on leave of absence as a result of the bringing forward of these charges in February, 2000. The applicant has at all times strenuously denied the allegations of the complainant.
In his statement, the complainant says that the incidents in the classroom took place in full view of all the pupils. He also says he was taught by the applicant in second class in 1967-68.
The applicant further deposes that the principal mentioned by the complainant has no recollection of any complaint made to him by the complainant. The former principal is now 84-85 years of age. Other members of the teaching staff are now either dead, have emigrated, or are unidentifiable or untraceable.
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