A FORMER SCHOOLTEACHER from Donegal who sexually abused 19 young boys over a 25-year period will be sentenced next month.

Details of the actions of Patrick Sharkey were revealed at Letterkenny Circuit Court.

Sharkey, now 83, sat emotionless in the dock, listening with the aid of a court-provided hearing device during proceedings before he was remanded in custody by Judge John Aylmer. 

He will be sentenced in June by judge Aylmer.

Sharkey, with an address at College Green, Belfast, was before the court on foot of a guilty plea to a total of 132 charges – a mix of indecent assault and sexual assault.

The charges related to a total of 19 victims and spanned dates between 1970 and 1995.

There were 59 offences in relation to one of the victims while some of the other injured parties were the victims of 15, 14, 10 and six counts.

Some offending occurred when children travelled from school to take part in extracurricular activities, and they stayed in Sharkey’s parents’ house in Clonmany, Co Donegal while other offences took place when they were on trips to Dublin.

Sharkey had been living in France when he flew into Birmingham in 2022 and was arrested by detectives on foot of warrants that had been issued.

Some of his victims, supported by family members, were present for a sentencing hearing at Letterkenny Courthouse. In the body of the court, some hugged tightly and others wept as Sharkey’s vile offending was relayed.

Sharkey, originally from the Clonmany area, was a teacher at St Joseph’s High School in Coleraine during the time of his offending. Many of the victims were students in the school.

The court heard that Sharkey was a substitute French teacher who also took care of after-school activities. 

Sharkey was also “very involved” with a youth club and a social club, while he helped to lead a cross-community initiative in the early 1990s. Sharkey was also involved in canoeing and taught that activity regularly.

He was interviewed on three occasions by detectives and made only “partial admissions”, the court heard. The court heard that Sharkey later told investigators: “Some time in the last six months I’ve come to the conclusion that I shouldn’t have touched those people at all”.

His barrister, Eugene Grant SC, with Maddie Grant BL, instructed by solicitor Patsy Gallagher, said that “the prospect of dying in prison is real” for Sharkey.

Previously, Sharkey served a sentence at Maghaberry Prison in Northern Ireland having been jailed at Antrim Crown Court in 2023. Three of the victims in that case overlapped into the matter before Letterkenny Circuit Court.

Detective Garda Johnny Gallagher from Buncrana Garda Station outlined the evidence in the case to Barrister for the State, Fiona Crawford BL.

One victim, who was the subject of 59 counts, told detectives: “Pretty much every night I was in Clonmany with Patrick Sharkey, he sexually abused me.”

He said he was “so shocked” and said that he “didn’t know what to do”.

Another person was just seven years old when Sharkey began to sexually abuse him.

“I had no idea what he was doing except I didn’t like it,” the victim recalled to detectives.

One of the victims outlined that he was 12 and the accused was in his 30s when Sharkey took him on an activity which lasted for three or four hours.

They later returned to Sharkey’s house and the court heard that the young victim woke up the following morning and had a pain in his private area. Sharkey told the young boy that “sometimes you get sore in places” after canoeing.

Another day, he told how Sharkey was “all over me” when they were in the shower while the victim also remembered Sharkey placing his hand inside his underwear and sexually assaulting him.

Another victim, who said he was “proper scared,” later told detectives. “It was just horrible. I didn’t know what to do.”

One victim, the subject of 10 counts on the indictment, told how he went to Dublin 18 times with Sharkey and he was subjected to sexual assaults “half the time” while another incident occurred in Clonmany.

Sharkey was approximately 53 years old when he began sexually assaulting another boy, who was 13 at the time.

He recalled how Sharkey had plied him with cider before he started to kiss him on the back and then sexually assaulted him.

He told how he closed his eyes and “just waited for it to stop”.

“I was in shock or fear,” he told detectives.

This victim said Sharkey came into a bedroom and started cuddling him before kissing him on the neck, cheek and face.

“I was petrified and didn’t sleep,” he said.

He recalled how Sharkey bought cider for him on another day and the two were in a room later in the daytime, while on another occasion, Sharkey performed a sex act on the boy after they had been out to an activity.

“I just zoned out,” the victim said in a victim impact statement in which he added that he had suffered suicidal ideation and become depressed, falling into alcohol abuse and having to endure anxiety.

Another man said he saw media reports regarding Sharkey in Northern Ireland when he decided to make a complaint.

He remembered how Sharkey would take children hill walking as part of an orienteering exercise as they were doing the Duke of Edinburgh Awards.

Sharkey took them to Clonmany and when he woke up in a house Sharkey had his hand on his penis.

“I didn’t know what to do,” he said. “I turned around to face the wall to get away from him (Sharkey).” He told investigators that Sharkey attempted to penetrate him, but he picked up a shoe and hit Sharkey before fleeing from the room.

One victim remembered how he tried to push Sharkey away but said “he was too big and he was too strong”.

Another man told gardaí how he felt that “Patrick Sharkey took something out of me that never returned” while another of Sharkey’s victims said he started to take drink and drugs as a result of what had happened.

“I couldn’t deal with it,” he said. “Patrick Sharkey took advantage of me when I was only 13 years old.”

Another of Sharkey’s victims said he has been trying to block out the incidents for 40 years while another of his victims told gardaí: “I was just terrified and I pretended to be asleep.”

A couple of the injured parties remembered how Sharkey would sometimes drive a car and allow them to sit on his lap but as the boys held the steering wheel they were sexually assaulted by Sharkey.

Grant said that his client, who worked at the Coleraine school from 1966 to 1997, has been residing in a hostel in Northern Ireland and asked the court to consider the signed guilty pleas as well as Sharkey’s advanced years and his history of heart failure.

Sharkey was remanded in custody and will be sentenced in June.