UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News
By Pam Caulfield
Reporter, BBC Hereford and Worcester
Pupils who were beaten and raped at a school run by a religious order have for the first time revealed a 30-year campaign of sadistic and degrading abuse.
The former schoolboys, who were as young as 11 when they were convicted of petty misdemeanours and sent to St Gilbert’s in Worcestershire, are demanding answers from the De La Salle order, which ran the school under the governance of the Home Office.
They want to know why a teacher convicted of sex offences against boys continued to be employed? Why were parents who complained about severe beatings ignored? And why did police ignore the boys who asked for help?
Joe Riley, now 68, was the first to come forward. He currently lives in Northern Ireland where the order, also known as the Christian Brothers, is being investigated for alleged offences there.
Mr Riley, who kept his abuse a secret for 55 years, said that inquiry was the trigger for bringing his own case to public attention.
He was 12 in 1959 when he was sent to St Gilbert’s in Hartlebury after being convicted of housebreaking and vandalism.
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