'Rot in hell'

As pervert rugby coach faces sentence victims tell of lives ruined at Terenure College....

- JESSICA MAGEE and CLAIRE HENRY

FORMER Terenure College teacher and rugby coach John McClean has been described in court as a "monster" and told to "rot in hell" by a former pupil he sexually assaulted in the 1980s.

McClean, 78, is to be sentenced today at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court after he admitted sexually assaulting 20 boys at the south Dublin school on dates between 1971 and 1992.

McClean of Casimir Avenue, Harold's Cross, Dublin is currently serving an 11-year sentence, with the final three years suspended, for abusing 23 Terenure College pupils. The sentence was handed down in 2021.

Yesterday morning, the court heard evidence from several injured parties, including one man who joined by videolink from the US.

One man, now aged 51, said he "wanted to die" while being abused aged 14 by McClean.

He said he went from being a very happy child "always with a smile on my face" to becoming so miserable after McClean abused him that he later tried to take his own life.

He said he has worked hard all his life to overcome the "shame and grubbiness" he associated with sexual desire and the feeling that he had "done something wrong".