Six arrested in investigation into alleged abuse at Fife school

By Michael Alexander
Courier
May 21, 2014

http://www.thecourier.co.uk/news/local/fife/six-arrested-in-investigation-into-alleged-abuse-at-fife-school-1.380585

The former St Ninian’s School, Falkland, which was run by the Irish Christian Brothers.

Six men with links to a notorious Irish Catholic brotherhood have been arrested and charged in connection with multiple allegations of child abuse at a residential school in Fife during the 1970s and 1980s.

The six men, now aged between 60 and 76, were spoken to by police as part of an investigation into allegations of sexual abuse, beatings and mental torture at the former St Ninian’s School in Falkland.

The incidents are alleged to have taken place between January 1978 and July 1983.

A police spokesman confirmed: “Six men have been arrested and charged with multiple complaints of physical and sexual abuse at the former St Ninian’s School in Falkland, Fife in the 70s and 80s. This investigation remains live and ongoing.”

The Crown Office confirmed the procurator fiscal at Cupar had received reports concerning six males and the reports remained “under consideration” by the fiscal. It’s understood none of those involved are now resident in Fife.

St Ninian’s School, which has been closed since the early 1980s, was run by the Irish Christian Brothers.

The organisation has been heavily implicated in abuse scandals that have shaken the Catholic Church across the world.

The Courier contacted the Catholic Church but a spokesman said they did not wish to comment as the Irish Christian Brothers were a separate organisation. Efforts to contact the headquarters of the Irish Christian Brothers in Dublin were yesterday unsuccessful.

The Courier told on Saturday how a Scot who says he was subjected to abuse at St Ninians during the 1970s is demanding a public inquiry into 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.

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

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.

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.

Now with the support of Labour MSP Graham 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 Community Safety and Legal Affairs Minister Roseanna Cunningham.

Mr Sharp is organising a march for justice from the Borders to Holyrood to highlight the alleged abuse.