Boy restrained in cattle equipment while raped by priest, abuse inquiry told

The Irish News
October 7, 2014

http://www.irishnews.com/news/boy-restrained-in-cattle-equipment-while-raped-by-priest-abuse-inquiry-1384897

A MAN has given harrowing evidence to the north's child abuse inquiry of being held in a cattle crush while being raped.

The witness said a religious brother at Rubane House in Co Down put him in the farm equipment, used to hold animals while veterinary work is carried out, before abusing him.

He said he reported the attack to a priest, but claimed the cleric told his abuser.

He was then beaten with a walking stick and locked in a cupboard over-night, the man told the Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) inquiry.

The victim was a resident at the boys' home, run by the De La Salle order, which is the subject of a government-ordered investigation into allegations of historical physical and sexual attacks on boys.

Claims of bestiality and children going missing were also made by witnesses.

The man recalled details of the alleged rape yesterday.

"You could not get your head out of it (the cattle crush). It was wood and metal and I remember there were two bars," he said.

"He was one of those brothers who just had you when he wanted you."

Between 1951 and 1985, about 1,000 children stayed at Rubane, near Kircubbin on the Ards Peninsula, a voluntary home for boys aged between 11 and 16.

About a fifth of residents claimed they suffered abuse, ranging from brothers watching boys in the showers for sexual gratification to rape or physical attacks, a lawyer for the Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) inquiry has said.

One boy entered the Co Down home in the 1950s, aged 13, after a period with foster carers and at an institution in Belfast.

He said a brother hit him with a cane. After several strokes he was told he was a hard man and made to turn his hands over and the cane took a nail off his finger.

On another occasion at the home's school he was allegedly pulled up by the ear, with blood falling on to his shirt, and the brother threatening to break his arm.

The witness said: "He said put your coat on and make sure you cover up that blood and get another shirt."

One religious brother, who has been accused of a series of attacks over 20 years and was the senior cleric at the home in the late 1950s, sneaked around at night, another witness alleged.

"You got woken up by him fumbling and fondling you, that happened twice to three times a week," he said.

The alleged victim is now aged 70 and a step brother of the first witness.

He said the religious brother wore a robe with nothing underneath and forced boys to fondle him or he would have stood on their toes if they did not do it.

"Depending where you slept, if you were in the first bed you were the first touched," he said.

"Other boys would have hid, which I did many times myself, would have went in under the clothes."

He said he saw boys sitting on the brothers' knees.

"I knew they were sitting on their knees because there were plenty of empty seats," he said.

Another witness compared his experience to Oscar-winning film, 12 Years A Slave, about slavery in the US.

An annotation at the bottom of his witness statement said: "This is what I think of my time in the homes."

"It was never a picnic, it was a hard time in my life, which I wanted to forget but I cannot. It is always going to be with me."

Former RUC detective chief superintendent Eric Anderson has said sexual abuse was rampant at the home.

Rubane was the subject of a police investigation in the 1990s, the inquiry panel was previously told. Three religious brothers were charged, but none convicted after their trials did not go ahead due to legal issues.

The Historical Institutional Abuse inquiry, chaired by former High Court judge Sir Anthony Hart, is sitting in Banbridge in Co Down.

The inquiry is investigating what took place at 13 residential children's homes run by religious orders, voluntary organisations and the state in the 73-year period up to 1995.

Of the 200 former residents who made abuse allegations about Rubane, 55 have come forward to the inquiry and the majority are expected to give evidence.

Lawyers are to examine 40,000 pages of documents.