Former Christian Brother caused 'absolute fear', court hears

Paul Dunleavy denies 37 charges of historic sexual abuse.

Two former pupils at St Aidan's Christian Brothers Primary School in west Belfast have claimed they were abused several times by former headmaster Paul Dunleavy in the 1970s, a court heard on Wednesday.

The complainants are two of nine men who have alleged they were abused as children by the former Christian Brother.

The 88-year-old, with an address at Glen Road in Belfast, is currently standing trial at Belfast Crown Court to face a total of 37 charges of historic sexual abuse.

He denies the charges.

The offences, which include indecent assault and gross indecency with or towards a child, are alleged to have been committed on dates between 1964 and 1991 when Mr Dunleavy worked as either a teacher or headmaster at four schools in Belfast, Newry and Armagh.

'He always locked the door'

On the third day of the trial, the jury heard evidence from two former St Aidan’s pupils.

Mr Dunleavy taught at the school in the 1970s and later became the headmaster.

One complainant told the court he was around nine years old when the alleged abuse took place in the early 1970s.

He described how he was sent to Mr Dunleavy’s office on several occasions for disciplinary reasons.

The court heard that on other occasions, Mr Dunleavy brought him to his office as he was leaving the dinner hall or when the rest of his class went swimming to the Falls Road baths.

He said he wasn’t always able to go swimming due to having no swimming trunks, so had to stay at school.

'He opened my trousers'

“When we’d go into the office he always locked the door. Anytime we went in he locked the door,” the complainant told the court.

He added that Mr Dunleavy, during one incident, “put me on his knee and started touching me. He opened my trousers”, before proceeding to sexually abuse him.

“This happened four or five times from what I remember,” he said.

The man also described how he had a difficult time at school and stopped attending from a young age.

The complainant said that in June 2018, he told his sister that he was abused when he was at school after seeing a television report regarding Mr Dunleavy.

He said he went to the police the following day and made a statement.

Under cross-examination, the defence barrister Gary McHugh questioned the year in which the man claimed the abuse happened and whether Mr Dunleavy worked at St Aidan’s during that period.

The man admitted he couldn’t recall the exact age he was but said he was about nine or 10 years old when was abused at St Aidan’s and said that Mr Dunleavy was there.

'Fear, absolute fear'

Another complainant that gave evidence on Wednesday told the jury he was “somewhere between eight and nine-years-old” when he was abused at St Aidan’s.

He said the abuse happened three or four times, and he named “Brother Dunleavy” as his abuser.

Recalling one alleged incident, he said he couldn’t remember why he was in Mr Dunleavy’s office but that he was sitting across from him when Mr Dunleavy approached him, grabbed his head and exposed himself.

“I remember starting to flail my arms and trying to push him away, trying to get away from him,” he said.

When asked what he felt in that moment, he said “fear, absolute fear”.

The man said Mr Dunleavy then “gave up” and he ran out of the office.

'It did happen'

He told the jury he also made a report to the police in 2018 after seeing a television report about “Brother Dunleavy”.

He said he “felt sickened" and that "this was my time".

Barrister Bobbie-Leigh Herdman cross-examined the complainant briefly and questioned the man about the time period he alleges he was abused.

She said that going by the age the man said he was at time, the abuse would have taken place after 1977.

She added: “Mr Dunleavy left St Aidan’s in June 1977, so this couldn’t have happened he wasn’t in the school.”

To which the man responded: “It did happen, it did.”

The judge asked the complainant: “might it have happened in a time period outside of that?”

The man reiterated that the abuse did happen.

The jury of six men and six women has already been told that Mr Dunleavy has been convicted on two separate occasions of a series of sexual offences against children in his care at a number of schools where he taught.