Priest "Was Told about Rubane Abuse"

UTV
October 20, 2014

http://www.u.tv/news/Priest-was-told-about-Rubane-abuse/b2e12e39-48b8-43f9-bdd3-77aa26f918fe

A former resident of a Catholic boys' home has told the Historical Abuse Inquiry that he informed a priest in Derry in 1964 about the severe physical and sexual abuse which children were suffering there.

But, he said that nothing was ever done about it.

Rubane House, a former boys' home in Kircubbin, Co Down, was run by the De La Salle Order.

Giving evidence to the inquiry on Monday, the former resident said his mother died when he was 13, but the Brothers didn't tell them until two weeks later.

Distressed that he hadn't been at her funeral, he ran away to visit her grave but was found by the police and brought back to Rubane.

He was summoned to the schoolhouse the next day.

There, three Brothers were waiting for him. They shaved his head without using foam, cutting his scalp.

They then held him down over a table. Choking and unable to breathe, he said they beat him.

His body swollen and covered in welts and bruises, he had to stay in bed for a week due to the pain.

Other boys from his dormitory brought him up food as he was unable to move.

The witness described how younger boys were regularly sexually abused in the TV room and in the brothers' bedrooms.

When he left Rubane at the age of 15, the inquiry heard he went to St Eugene's Cathedral in Derry where he spoke to a priest.

"I told him everything that was going on I said you have got to do something about it and he said: 'We will look into it and get everything sorted.'

"But nothing was ever heard about it at all."

When asked if he would like a memorial or an apology, the man replied: "No, a memorial would remind us of what we went through when we were young. An apology wouldn't solve the problem. We were hurt too much."