A former Christian Brother accused of sexually abusing schoolboys in his care was described as an “evil” man by one alleged victim who said “he ruined my life”, a court heard today.
Paul Dunleavy is standing trial at Belfast Crown Court on a total of 37 sexual offences which span over a period from 1964 and 1991 and involve former pupils from four schools.
The 88-year-old, from Glen Road in Belfast, denies all the charges.
On the fourth day of the trial, an ‘achieving best evidence' police interview conducted in March 2022 with one of nine complainants was played to the jury.
In the interview, the former Gort na Mona Secondary School pupil claimed he was both physically and sexually abused by Brother Dunleavy in the mid-1980s and that he was an “evil, evil, evil man”.
The complainant told a police officer that he initially enjoyed his time at the west Belfast school but when Brother Dunleavy arrived when he was aged around 13, he was “singled out” and subjected to regular physical and sexual abuse which went on for “months and months.”
Saying “I don't know why he picked on me”, the complainant said: “He had me tortured. He was a wicked, wicked man. He was full of anger.”The man claimed that Dunleavy used to stand in a corridor, pull him to the side, wouldn't allow him to attend class and beat him on his hands and legs with “a big leather strap.”
He said this left him with welts and his hands were “red-raw” and on occasions, he was “beaten to a pulp... I was only a boy and he was a grown man.”
The complainant also said Dunleavy “hit me with his hands... big slaps around the head, around the arse, around the legs, just anywhere that suited him.
“He was just a bad, bad man. He destroyed me, he destroyed my school. I was only a boy. He ruined my life.”
During the interview, the complainant was asked by the police officer to describe Dunleavy and he said: “He was a big tall man, an enormous man, an evil auld man, very wicked.”
The complainant was then questioned about his allegations of sexual abuse, which he said occurred in Dunleavy's office or in the toilets.
Describing what happened to him as “stinking” and “horrible”, the complainant told the police officer Dunleavy used to touch him “down below” and would “rub himself against me” and that this occurred regularly.
Telling the officer “that Brother did physically and sexually abuse me and that's the bottom line”, he said the abuse came to an end when he “stopped going to school.”
Following the playing of the police interview, the complainant was cross-examined by defence barrister Gary McHugh KC who told the Belfast man his client Dunleavy denied beating or sexually abusing him.
Mr McHugh questioned the allegations he made to the PSNI, suggested he “invented” what he claimed happened and said his motivation for this was to make a claim for money.
These suggestions were rejected by the complainant who insisted the physical and sexual abuse “did happen.”
The jury of six men and six women have already been told that Dunleavy has been convicted on two separate occasions of a series of sexual offences against children in his care at a number of schools where he taught.