Courts

Former Christian Brother jailed for abusing children was ‘like a dark shadow’ in victims’ lives

Paul Dunleavy preyed on boys from deprived backgrounds, leaving them with feelings of worthlessness, self-hatred and guilt

Paul Dunleavy was convicted previously on two separate occasions of sexual offences against children in his care. Photograph: Alan Lewis/Photopress Belfast
Paul Dunleavy was convicted previously on two separate occasions of sexual offences against children in his care. Photograph: Alan Lewis/Photopress Belfast
Gerry Moriarty's picture
Gerry Moriarty
Thu Nov 28 2024 - 18:20

“Like a dark shadow” was how one of Paul Dunleavy’s victims recalled the damage to his life from the abuse inflicted by the former Christian Brother.

Dunleavy (89), with an address in Glen Road, Belfast, was handed a further 10 years in prison at Belfast Crown Court on Thursday. The former teacher and principal was found guilty in September of 36 charges of historical sexual abuse against nine boys. The offences were committed between 1964 and 1991 while Dunleavy worked at four schools in Belfast, Newry and Armagh.

One of the his victims, who wished to remain anonymous, said he was abused by Dunleavy while a student at the Abbey Christian Brothers primary school in Newry, Co Down, during the 1970s.

“In classroom you would have reading; I was always called over to his left-hand side,” the 64-year-old said. “When the boys were reading, he would drop the hand down and put his hand between my legs.”

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He remembered one occasion when he resisted Dunleavy, but that landed him in trouble with his peers. He explained that the boys were playing football when Dunleavy called him over to join him on the sideline, but he refused. Dunleavy reacted: “Right, that’s it – everybody back to class; and you all know who to blame.”

He said he was regularly “battered” by Dunleavy. He believed he was targeted because his family were poor and couldn’t afford his school uniform.

“The people in class with uniforms – he never bothered them,” he said.

“I did not know he was doing wrong, I did not know it was wrong. It was only when you got older and the boys in secondary school were asking: ‘Well, did Dunleavy get you?’ ... The majority of the Abbey knew.”

The experiences left him feeling “useless, stupid, thick”, he said. “I hated myself, my life. I hated my name, hated how I looked.”

[ Former Christian Brother found guilty of historic sex offences against schoolboys ]

He said he also felt “guilt because of all the people who came after me. If I had been brave and spoke up and said something that would have saved these boys, people younger than me”.

A second victim, a recovered alcoholic now aged 58 who also did not wish to be named, said he was abused while attending St Aidan’s primary school on the Whiterock Road in west Belfast.

Also from a deprived background, he said there were “lots of incidents”. One of them involved an encounter with Dunleavy in a store room where he put him on his knee and said: “This is what you do with your girlfriend.”

“He was like a dark shadow, always around, at football matches, in changing rooms, but always in the background,” he said.

He said the experience gave him a feeling of worthlessness and affected his relationships with women.

Similar to the student at the Abbey in Newry, he said older students “who knew about Dunleavy were laughing at you”.

With help from Alcoholics Anonymous, the man has been off alcohol for the past 19 years. He started drinking when he was 12.

“When we were drinking in the fields, you know, someone would start crying. And someone would say, ‘Oh, here we go,’ and someone would say, ‘Oh, it must be Dunleavy.’”

Dunleavy briefly bowed his head in the dock of Belfast Crown Court as sentence was passed on Thursday afternoon.

He is already serving a prison sentence, having been convicted previously on two separate occasions of sexual offences against children in his care.

Judge Patrick Lynch KC, said: “In this case the world would have been in a better place had he not served a lifetime in religious and public service.”