Former Terenure College rugby coach John McClean has won an appeal against the severity of a four year term he received for sexually abusing 22 pupils, after the Court of Appeal found the sentence did not stand up to “rigorous analysis”.
McClean, of Casimir Avenue, Harold’s Cross, Dublin 6, was initially given an eight-year sentence in 2021 for abusing 23 pupils at the south Dublin school. He then pleaded guilty to abusing 22 more boys at the college between 1971 and 1992 and was given a four-year sentence by Judge Martin Nolan in February last year, to run consecutive to his first sentence.
He said the court would quash the sentence imposed by Judge Nolan in February 2023 and re-sentence McClean to a global term of 10 and a half years. While noting that there were some differences in the nature of the offending involving different victims, Mr Justice Edwards said that there were no substantial differences, as the general nature of the offending was predatory, frequently including inappropriate touching, often of the victim’s genitals.