Disgraced judge moved to same prison landing as paedophile ex-soldier Gerard Lawless

The Sunday World understands a cell on the wheelchair-accessible G1 landing was cleared for the disabled 59-year-old in advance of his sentencing hearing on Friday.

O’Brien’s new neighbour Gerard Lawless was sentenced to 10 years in prison two weeks ago for the sexual abuse of his stepdaughter Danielle. Lawless, too, is wheelchair reliant.

A source confirmed the move yesterday, saying: “The court raised a concern about whether the Prison Service had the facilities to cater for someone with O’Brien’s… medical needs.

“But the G1 landing in the Midlands is as well-equipped as any hospital when it comes to this kind of thing

A former teacher as well as a judge, O’Brien was born without hands and one foot after his mother was prescribed thalidomide prior to his birth in 1964.

On Friday, the pervert was jailed for four years for the sexual abuse of six young men while he was a secondary school teacher almost 30 years ago.

O’Brien sexually assaulted the victims and also attempted to rape one of them at locations in Dublin in the 1990s.

At the Central Criminal Court, Mr Justice Alexander Owens sentenced him to five years and nine months, with 21 months suspended.

Judge Owens said O’Brien engaged in “predatory behaviour” when he grossly abused the victims’ trust to “manipulate” them into sexual activity.”​

The trial had heard the abuse happened between March 1991 and November 1997, when he was in his late 20s and early 30s and teaching in south Dublin.

The victims – four of whom were his students or former students –were aged between 17 and 24.

O’Brien, who was appointed as a Circuit Court judge in 2015, resigned in January, following his conviction.

The court had heard he was born missing both hands and a foot and would ask students to assist him in going to the toilet. Many stayed overnight in his homes to help him get dressed in the morning.

Five of the victims said they had gone to sleep beside him when they woke to find him performing sexual acts on them.

Four said O’Brien performed oral sex on them. One said O’Brien assaulted and also attempted to rape him. The sex assault on the sixth victim was in a pub toilets. ​

O’Brien had admitted sexual contact with three of the victims but claimed it was consensual. He denied any sexual activity at all with the others.

Judge Owens said O’Brien misused his position as a teacher to win his pupils’ “complete trust”. They looked up to him as a role model and friend and were “lulled into a false sense of security”.

“He was fully trusted and admired by his pupils who wanted to help him,” and abused that, the judge said.

The court heard when the final victim reported the assault in 1997, it brought O’Brien’s teaching and offending to “an abrupt end.”

After that, he got treatment and “sorted himself out.” O’Brien, who had a law degree, returned to practice as a solicitor before his eventual appointment as a judge. He had now lost his legal career.

“He’s brought this misfortune on himself”, Judge Owens said, because the convictions showed O’Brien was “unsuitable to hold judicial office.”

​ “These crimes will have a lasting effect on the victims and their families and I hope sincerely that they are now able to move forward with their lives,” Detective Chief Superintendent Colm Noonan said outside court.