Catholic School Sex Abuse Victim Tells How Churchman Dismissed His Suffering and Warned He Would Never Win Justice

By James Moncur
Daily Record
May 17, 2014

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/catholic-school-sex-abuse-victim-3553470

Speaking out: David has told of the horrors he suffered at the hands of a priest.

CHURCHMAN callously dismissed Catholic school sex abuse victim David Sharp’s suffering – and told him he could never win justice.

David, 55, claimed yesterday he was “ambushed” by a “fixer” for the notorious Christian Brothers order.

The man had been sent by the order to get David to back down after he contacted then cardinal Keith O’Brien over his abuse.

And he told David, who was raped, beaten and tortured by sadistic priest Brother Frank Ryan at residential St Ninian’s RC School in Falkirk that he was wasting his time pursuing the complaint.

The school was run by the Brothers, who have been heavily implicated in the abuse scandals which have shaken the Catholic Church across the world.

David said yesterday he was forced to confront the Brothers’ representative alone after he couldn’t get anyone to accompany him to the meeting in 2011.

But he deliberately arranged the meeting in a public place – a Chinese restaurant – for safety.

David said: “The then cardinal Keith O’Brien got me in touch with the order and a meeting was set up. The thought of meeting a Brother on my own was terrifying which was why I arranged it in a public place. It was like I was ambushed and I felt very threatened and intimidated the whole time I was with him.

“I got the impression he was their fixer. He asked me what I was hoping to achieve by bringing the past up and I told him I wanted answers to why these things happened.

“He looked me in the eyes and told me I was wasting my time because there was no way I would win and if I wanted to do anything I would have to go through their lawyers.

“I made a conscious decision then that I would not give up my fight.”

We told yesterday how David suffered years of torture and rapes by Ryan, who has since died.

Ryan would wake him most nights with a hand over his mouth, usher him to a private room or the school’s freezing showers and carry out the horrific assaults.

David also described being flown to Ireland during holidays to be used as a sexual plaything by groups of unknown men.

Now, with the support of MSP Graeme Pearson, he is demanding a full national inquiry into all institutional abuse across Scotland and wants the government to waive the three-year time bar on civil cases to allow victims like him to have their voices heard in court.

He has also written an open letter to Roseanna Cunningham, Minister for Community Safety and Legal Affairs.

In the letter, extracts of which are reproduced below, he points out to Cunningham that many countries have opened inquiries to bring justice and reparation to victims of institutional abuse.

He writes: “Scotland stands alone in its defiance not to show any kind of support for its victims.

“Like so many other people, I need to know why this was allowed to happen to me and so many other children for so long and what can be done about it.

“The state has a responsibility to ensure human rights are respected. This includes upholding the rights of access to justice, effective remedies and reparation for victims and survivors of historical child abuse, and the rights of other affected.

“We cannot stop our search for answers and justice and we cannot and will not go away.”

David is organising a March For Justice to highlight the abuse. He is hoping to gather a large group of supporters to walk from the Scottish Borders to Holyrood.

Last night, Helen Holland of INCAS – In Care Abuse Survivors – said: “Unfortunately, David’s account comes as no surprise to us as we have heard similar accounts over the last 14 years.

“The Government hide behind the time bar as a means of not facing up to their own part in denying the level of care they should have given to the children placed in institutions throughout Scotland.

“Instead, children were systematically abused, tortured, raped and used as a means of child labour for those people financially rewarded for the number of children in their “care”.

“So many children were lied to by the people whose care they were entrusted to and continue to search for the truth.

“We sought a public inquiry as this would mean no one could hide under the robe of respectability or position. We, like David, will not be silenced into submission the way we were silenced as children.”

Brother Edmund Garvey of the Christian Brothers said: “I completely regret, and am appalled by the allegations made by Mr. Sharp.

“I will take an immediate and personal interest in his case, along with the members of my staff.”

This week, the Catholic Church revealed that Thomas Mullen, the priest at Our Lady of Lourdes in Dunfermline, had been sacked.

The move came despite prosecutors deciding not to proceed with allegations that he abused a boy from the age of nine more than 20 years ago.

"I need to know why abuse was so easy': David's letter to Roseanna Cunningham

"I need to know why it was so easy for these people who abused me for so long and how they were allowed to put me in a plane on more than one occasion and take me over to Ireland where I was locked in a room with up to five men and subject to unspeakable horrors. Let me tell you Mrs Cunningham that no amount of child trauma therapy or counselling can ever take away the affect that has had on my whole life and every relationship I have ever had.

"Almost four years ago I contacted the police again because I finally found the courage to approach the religious group who did those awful things to me. I contacted the then Cardinal Keith O’Brien who got me in touch with the order and a meeting was set up and this man asked me what I was hoping to achieve by bringing the past up and I told him I wanted answers to why these things happened and he looked me in the eyes and told me that I was wasting my time pursuing my case because there was no way I would win. I made a conscious decision then that I would not give up my fight.

"Two years ago I contacted the police again to tell them that I wanted to talk about something I had been carrying around with me for over forty years. I told them that when I was in the home we were all in dormitories and each night we would be in our beds waiting to see who would be picked that night to go to be abused.

"In the bed next to me was a boy who went through similar things that I did and one day he allegedly committed suicide. Shortly after I was taken down to the cellar shower room and I was hanged with a belt from a shower with my hands tied behind me and told that if I did not do what this man told me the same thing would happen to me".