Victim calls for inquiry into abuse at former Fife school

By Michael Alexander
Courier
May 17, 2014

http://www.thecourier.co.uk/news/local/fife/victim-calls-for-inquiry-into-abuse-at-former-fife-school-1.374237

Dave Sharp was the victim of priest abuse at St Ninians School in Falkland.

A Scot who says he was subjected to sexual abuse, sadistic beatings and mental torture at the hands of a paedophile Catholic brother at a residential school in Fife during the 1970s is demanding a public inquiry into all cases of institutional abuse in Scotland.

David Sharp, who has described the catalogue of abuse as “Scotland’s shame”, has also told how he was trafficked to Ireland to be raped by up to five men — and believes some of his rapists were priests.

As police confirmed a report had gone to the procurator fiscal surrounding abuse allegations at the former school in Falkland, Mr Sharp told The Courier publicity had led to other alleged victims coming forward.

Mr Sharp, 55, originally from Glasgow and now living in England, says a man he knew as Christian Brother Ryan began preying on him when he was 10 and residing at St Ninian’s School in Falkland, run by the Irish Christian Brothers.

By then he had spent almost a decade in care. His mum died of tuberculosis when he was a baby and his vulnerable dad could not cope.

He was placed at the Nazareth House in Kilmarnock at a year old. But his happiness ended when he moved to St Ninan’s.

Mr Sharp said the abuse started when he had been at the Falkland school for less than a month — and it left him terrified to wake up each day.

In addition to Ryan’s sinister “love”, he said there was also violence carried out in a basement that had been converted into showers.

He said: “He would pull me out of line and tell me to wait down in these shower rooms until he came back down.

“Even now, 35 years later, I still get flashbacks of being hung by a piece of rope round my neck on to the shower, and my hands tied behind my back and him beating me with a belt.”

Mr Sharp says he was trafficked to Ireland when he had to spend his holidays at St Ninian’s and the other boys went home.

With Ryan now dead and beyond justice, Mr Sharp says he cannot bring a civil action against those he says should have protected him because the law says such cases must be brought within three years.

He wants the time bar lifted and is organising a March for Justice in which he and his supporters will walk from the Borders to Holyrood.

He has enlisted the help of Labour MSP Graham Pearson who led a Holyrood debate on care home child abuse last week.

Mr Sharp has written to Community Safety and Legal Affairs Minister Roseanna Cunningham.

She said the Government had given £6.2 million to the SurvivorScotland Strategy to support victims, and were setting up a national confidential forum to give former care residents a voice.

Referring to the Falkland allegations, a police spokesperson said: “It is true that historical sexual abuse cases are difficult to prove but that does not prevent us from doing so.

“We have investigated allegations of abuse at this place in Falkland from the 1970s.

“A report has gone to the procurator fiscal.”