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	Supreme Court Clears Way for Sex Ring Trial By Vivion Kilfeather One in Four April 27, 2008 http://www.oneinfour.org/news/news2008/sexring/ The Supreme Court has cleared the way for the trial of a man who is accused of sexually abusing a then 13-year old boy and introducing him to other men for sex as part of a sex ring. By two to one majority the Supreme Court yesterday allowed the DPP's appeal against a High Court order stopping the nan's trial. The accused is facing trial on charges of buggery and indecent assault against the now 39 year old complainant who alleges that, following the abuse, he operated as a teenage male prostitute. The charges relate to alleged offences between 1982 and 1983. The accused was charged in October 1999 following the initial complaint in 1996. He was returned for trial in 2001, but took judicial review proceedings to stop the trial. The alleged victim claims he was seriously sexually abused by several men from a very young age, beginning with a priest at the age of six or seven, acted as a teenage male prostitute and was "hooked on sex". He claimed he met the accused man when he was 13 and was subject to acts of sexual abuse by him over a two year period. Mr Justice Fennelly revealed that the man at the centre of the trial had been treated by a clinical psychologist, Clare Moran, from 1994 to 1996. Ms Moran had decided she was ethically bound to report the claims of abuse masde to her and had told the man she would not continue to treat him unless he reported the alleged abuse to gardai. Ms Moran had had in 1995 and 1996, reported the man's claims of abuse by two other men to named men to to social workers. In January 1996, she reported the man's claims of abuse by the accused, stating he had disclosed the abuse to her some days earlier. The man himself first contacted gardai in February 1996 and between then and March 1998, made allegations of sexual abuse against eight men, but could name only three, including the accused. An "assiduous" Garda investigation into the claims continued between 1997 and 1999 and the accused was charged in October 1999, the judge noted. Rejecting the accused's claim of a serious risk of unfair trial due to the delay, including prosecutorial delay, Mr Justice Fennelly said gardai were dealing with an extremely difficult and complex case involving "a net work of sexual abuse, a ring of abusers and the murkey and sordid world of male prostitution". The judge found the High Court was wrong to hold there was a serious risk of an unfair trial due to non availability of witnesses, including Ms Moran
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