'˜Predator offender' paedophile ex-teacher jailed for 13 years

A former head of maths at a Co Down grammar school has been jailed for 13 years for child sex offences.
Former St Colmans College teacher Patrick James Carton arrives at court to be sentencedFormer St Colmans College teacher Patrick James Carton arrives at court to be sentenced
Former St Colmans College teacher Patrick James Carton arrives at court to be sentenced

Patrick James Carton, who taught at St Colman’s College in Newry, was described by the judge as a “persistent, predatory and opportunistic offender who abused young people”.

Standing in the dock of Downpatrick Crown Court, sitting in Antrim, the 75-year-old appeared shocked at the sentence while his relatives in the public gallery cried at the verdict.

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Carton, of Marguerite Close in Newcastle, Co Down, had been found guilty in March on 29 counts of indecent assault committed on various dates between February 1983 and June 2007.

The sentences for each of his six victims are to be served consecutively, and Judge Brian Sherrard said: “I consider that the global sentence is entirely in keeping with your course of persistent offending.”

A Sexual Offences Prevention Order to run alongside the prison sentence was also imposed, and Carton was ordered to sign the police sex offenders register for the rest of his life.

The trial jury heard that Carton, who also taught at De La Salle in Downpatrick, had given private maths lessons to the victims, abusing them in their own bedrooms.

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Jailing the paedophile pensioner, Judge Sherrard told Carton that he had been a “beacon of respectability,” had devoted his career to teaching maths to children “with some considerable success” and was held “in high esteem”.

He added: “All of this contributes to make your fall from grace even greater, and ostensibly a man of good character until 75, it’s clear that you have been offending from middle age.”

During the seven-week trial, the jury of seven women and five men heard testimony from each of the six victims, all of them teenagers at the time of the abuse, that Carton had a “star system” of discipline.

Three stars served “as a warning,” four resulted in a smack, five stars got a smack over underwear and six stars meant the pupil was smacked on his or her bare bottom.

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The victims gave evidence that on occasions, Carton instructed them to lie on their bed where he smacked them but that in other incidents, they were “put across” his knee.

One woman said the abuse had “ruined” her life, while the male victim recounted how Carton pulled his pants down to smack him while being taught maths at his home, describing one specific incident where he had to “fight him off with his pants around his ankles” because Carton would not stop hitting him.

During police interviews, Carton told police the families had asked him to tutor their children through “word of mouth,” claiming he did not smack the children to punish but in his mind it was to challenge them and had been done with the parents’ consent.

He denied gaining any sexual gratification or any criminal wrongdoing, telling police it was “the most effective method” that led to “the best results”.

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In court on Wednesday, prosecuting lawyer Laura Levers submitted there were numerous aggravating features to the case, including breaching the trust that was placed in Carton in that he “exploited the tutoring arrangements in order to abuse” the teenagers as well as the “sheer number” of victims spanning some 24 years.

Defence barrister Mark Barlow said Carton “has lost everything ... and now he will be portrayed as a serial sexual offender who abused young teenage girls and a young teenage boy”.

He said while Carton has always accepted the smacking aspect of his offences, he denies and continues to maintain his innocence regarding the more serious sex abuse aspect of the case which leads to “an absence of remorse”.

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