Michael Ferry.
BY KATE HEANEY
A REPORT is due for completion this month into how the HSE (formerly NWHB) dealt with a Donegal garda referral about convicted Gweedore child sex abuser Michael Ferry, made in 2002.
The report will investigate what follow-up was made after the garda referral to the health service, when the Gweedore man was convicted of sexually abusing four boys and had his name added to the Register of Sex Offenders. He then went on to continue working at Ardscoil Mhuire and sexually abused a further four victims. The time period covered by the report is from 2002 up to 2011.
Michael Ferry (56) with an address at Carrickboyle in July last year was sentenced to 14 years in jail for raping four boys at the nearby Ard Scoil Mhuire on dates between July 1, 1990 and September 31, 2005.
In December 2002, he had been convicted on two counts of sexual assault at Letterkenny District Court. He was given a six-month suspended sentence and a €500 fine. He was also placed on the Sex Offenders Register.
At the time Minister for Justice Alan Shatter called on the Garda Commissioner to compile a report into how Ferry remained as a caretaker at the Gweedore school after this 2002 conviction.
Minister Shatter said he asked the Commissioner to particularly address what contact the gardai had with the school’s authorities and the local health board after Ferry’s conviction in 2002.
A query from the Donegal News to the Department of Justice this week on the status of that report, had not received a reply at the time of going to press.
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