Four years for sex abuse headmaster

Derry teacher assaulted teenage boys
By Debra Dougl

29 April 2005
A former Co Londonderry headmaster who abused three young boys was today sentenced to four years in prison.

Jude Lynch (44), of Earmount Road in Park, admitted 33 sex offences against three boys age 13, 14 and 15, including indecent assault and gross indecency.

Sentencing the former principal, Judge David Smyth QC said: "As a headmaster you were in a position to understand the extent of the wrong you were doing."

Describing Lynch's victims as vulnerable he said: "They were under the age of consent and you as a headmaster knew that."

Judge Smyth described Lynch as the architect of the incidents and said he used his organisational ability and talents to book hotels to impress these "vulnerable children".

The judge also ordered Lynch to complete 18 months of probation which will include a course of counselling that will take three years to complete.

He also ordered Lynch to sign the sex offenders register for life and told him that he will never be allowed to work with children again.

Lynch's co-accused, Richard George Alan Scott, (22) of Parklands, Antrim, was sentenced to eight months imprisonment for charges of indecent assault and four months for charges of gross indecency. The sentences are to run concurrently.

The third accused, Ryan Alexander McInnes (24) of Westwinds Terrace, Annahilt, was given a six- month sentence, suspended for two years for a charge of indecent assault. He was also given a four-month suspended sentence for gross indecency. The sentences are also to run concurrently.

Lynch resigned as the head of Good Shepherd Primary School in Londonderry when his activity came to light, although none of the offences took place there or involved any of the children.

Ballymena Crown Court, sitting in Antrim, heard how Lynch took the boys to top hotels to engage in "a sequence of homosexual adventures".

Prosecution counsel said the police were called in after the mother of one boy discovered a diary and became alarmed.

Lynch's defence counsel said his client had suffered a "terrible fall from grace".

He said Lynch had trouble with his sexuality and had entered into "a murky world".

He said there was no pressure or force used on the victims but added that one of the victims received small sums of money, cigarettes and sweets after their sexual adventures.

Fr Michael Collins, a parish priest from Limavady and a family friend, told the court Lynch was an innocent person.

He said: "He has lived all his life in a structured society where there are moral rules and expectations, but he moved out of that environment into a murky world. He is an innocent person."