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From what I recall the 'sadism' and strictness was more in the image than reality. We had Brother Victor in first year and he used 'RE' lessons as great stuff for civics/ethics etc. Brother Wilfred was a softie - I can recall at least two 'revolts' that he ended up agreeing with. There were some incompetent / weak teachers but hey ho.

Bro Serenus was THE BEST at getting you through the transition to UNI, in the days before everybody went.

67-72-74

 

I would have to go along with John Owens on this, being at DLS from 66-73 and as an occasional contributor and viewer, it would be impossible to comment on the 50s.

It was nice to see my old mate John contributing- hope you are ok, John!

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There is a vengeful God, after all … Though perhaps not vengeful enough …

 

Read this from The Times of 4 January 2016 … It reports the third substantial prison sentence of a De la Salle brother - and a judgment by the UK Supreme Court against the Order and requiring it now to find £7 million in compensation for victims of its covered-up child abuse …

 

The former head of a children’s home run by a Roman Catholic order who has already served 21 years in prison for sexually abusing boys was jailed for a further nine years yesterday.

James Carragher, 75, was head of St William’s community home in Market Weighton, East Yorkshire, an approved school for boys with behavioural problems run by the De La Salle order, from 1976 to 1990.

He previously had been jailed for seven years in 1993 and a further 14 years in 2004 for offences he committed at St William’s.

Anthony McCallen, 69, the home’s former chaplain, was also sentenced at Leeds crown court. He was jailed for 15 years after being convicted of 11 counts of sexual abuse.

Judge Geoffrey Marson told the men: “Each of you has a longstanding, deeply engrained sexual interest in teenage boys. It’s an interest, I have no doubt, that continues to persist.

“It’s perfectly clear that each of you targeted some of the most vulnerable boys. You groomed them, abused them for your own sexual gratification, then threatened them to ensure they did not complain.”

St William’s is the subject of the largest compensation claim arising from sexual abuse at a single children’s home. More than 20 brothers from the De La Salle order, which runs 1,000 schools worldwide, are accused of abusing 170 boys at St William’s between 1958 and 1992. The school is now closed.

The Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that the order must share the cost of paying an estimated £7 million compensation to boys who were sexually and physically abused.

It said that the order, known formally as the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, and the Roman Catholic Church were both liable for compensating victims of abuse at the home.

The ruling means that organisations that care for children will be held liable for the abuse of children in their care if their work creates a risk of abuse. Previously, victims had to show that an organisation had employed or closely controlled the abuser.

Compensation claims by the victims were suspended pending the outcome of the criminal trial.

David Gibbs, a chartered legal executive in the specialist child abuse department at the law firm Jordans, said that victims “have had to endure not only the abuse itself, but not being believed by police and social workers who they told, incomplete police investigations and years of delays caused by legal delay tactics of the home’s Catholic operators.

“Legal technicalities are to this day being used to prevent them getting compensation and restoring some dignity to their lives.”

 

If you Google "Carragher De La Salle", you will see that the idiot innocents of the DLS order

reinstated him as Headmaster of School once he had served seven years of his first 14-year

stretch for child abuse - on the grounds that they and God forgave him … But have the boy victims been able to … ?

 

Let us all just hope that the £7 million judgment against the order will now be sufficient to close it down …

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There is a vengeful God, after all … Though perhaps not vengeful enough …

 

Read this from The Times of 4 January 2016 … It reports the third substantial prison sentence of a De la Salle brother - and a judgment by the UK Supreme Court against the Order and requiring it now to find £7 million in compensation for victims of its covered-up child abuse …

 

The former head of a children’s home run by a Roman Catholic order who has already served 21 years in prison for sexually abusing boys was jailed for a further nine years yesterday.

James Carragher, 75, was head of St William’s community home in Market Weighton, East Yorkshire, an approved school for boys with behavioural problems run by the De La Salle order, from 1976 to 1990.

He previously had been jailed for seven years in 1993 and a further 14 years in 2004 for offences he committed at St William’s.

Anthony McCallen, 69, the home’s former chaplain, was also sentenced at Leeds crown court. He was jailed for 15 years after being convicted of 11 counts of sexual abuse.

Judge Geoffrey Marson told the men: “Each of you has a longstanding, deeply engrained sexual interest in teenage boys. It’s an interest, I have no doubt, that continues to persist.

“It’s perfectly clear that each of you targeted some of the most vulnerable boys. You groomed them, abused them for your own sexual gratification, then threatened them to ensure they did not complain.”

St William’s is the subject of the largest compensation claim arising from sexual abuse at a single children’s home. More than 20 brothers from the De La Salle order, which runs 1,000 schools worldwide, are accused of abusing 170 boys at St William’s between 1958 and 1992. The school is now closed.

The Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that the order must share the cost of paying an estimated £7 million compensation to boys who were sexually and physically abused.

It said that the order, known formally as the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, and the Roman Catholic Church were both liable for compensating victims of abuse at the home.

The ruling means that organisations that care for children will be held liable for the abuse of children in their care if their work creates a risk of abuse. Previously, victims had to show that an organisation had employed or closely controlled the abuser.

Compensation claims by the victims were suspended pending the outcome of the criminal trial.

David Gibbs, a chartered legal executive in the specialist child abuse department at the law firm Jordans, said that victims “have had to endure not only the abuse itself, but not being believed by police and social workers who they told, incomplete police investigations and years of delays caused by legal delay tactics of the home’s Catholic operators.

“Legal technicalities are to this day being used to prevent them getting compensation and restoring some dignity to their lives.”

 

If you Google "Carragher De La Salle", you will see that the idiot innocents of the DLS order

reinstated him as Headmaster of School once he had served seven years of his first 14-year

stretch for child abuse - on the grounds that they and God forgave him … But have the boy victims been able to … ?

 

Let us all just hope that the £7 million judgment against the order will now be sufficient to close it down …

 

I am sure that all you report is correct, but although I was personally corporally punished at Sheffield De la Salle , I was never sexually exploited at any time, or in anyway, and as far as I know, neither were any of my peers. I have no love or fondness for any of my teachers there, but would never call them chid molesters or the such, as I do not believe they were anything more than strict disciplinarians , with strong religious undertones.

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I am sure that all you report is correct, but although I was personally corporally punished at Sheffield De la Salle , I was never sexually exploited at any time, or in anyway, and as far as I know, neither were any of my peers. I have no love or fondness for any of my teachers there, but would never call them chid molesters or the such, as I do not believe they were anything more than strict disciplinarians , with strong religious undertones.

 

I remember one lad who undoubtedly had something of an affair with one of the (lay) teachers - we all knew about it and laughed at the lad's puffish stupidity.

But that was all I ever came across of sexual abuse and jiggery-pokery while in six years at DLSCS.

 

You might bear in mind, Torontony, that not only has the UK Supreme Court found against the DLS Brothers (£7 million compensation to victims ordered !) but in February 2014, the actual UN published a long official report condemning the whole Catholic Church for covering up child sexual abuse by brothers, priests and the like … the Sinner supported by his Hierarchy, eh ?

 

Do you think these people and their seniors were (are !) fit to be let near children ? A complete shambolic disgrace …

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Let's get this straight; those of us who were at DLS in the 50s and 60s aren't kidding. We were there; we know what happened. We were abused, plain and simple. Sexual abuse was limited as far as I know; uniform in the junior years was short trousers, and one brother repeatedly called us up to the front to have work marked and would put his hand up our trousers leg. We all learned to hang back although one of my friends once objected loudly to this treatment and was caned for it. In my own experience, this was the extent of sexual abuse. Others may know differently.

 

Let's concentrate on the physical abuse. In my time almost all the staff carried some form of strap or cane. In my own case, my worst experience among many was once when I forgot to bring my homework to class. The background was that I had a 12 mile bus journey every morning and evening on public transport, standing up most of the way and setting off early. At home my father had just lost his job and was having a nervous breakdown. My mother had to go out to pwork shifts to keep us, including night shifts, while I tried to look after my Dad. On the day in question, I had all my books in one bag and all my PE stuff in another, I was harassed to death and just forgot the blasted homework. The "brother" in question just hauled me out, pulled out a cane from under his habit and walloped me on the hand. Luckily I had the presence of mind to stick out my left hand, because the blow landed across the ends of my fingers and cut them open. They bled, and I couldn't bend them properly for about a month. If it had been my right hand, I'd have been unable to write for weeks. The man in question hadn't got a clue, and didn't care. It's for this kind of thing that we are still angry, and, although I feel ashamed to admit it, why we have to talk about it still, because nobody knew and nobody cared about it. Telling it here is a kind of closure; I haven't let all those experiences cloud my life, but they are still there in a locked box. Is there anybody reading this who understands?

 

 

Very much so. I left the College in 1965. As I wrote previously I don't have one single positive memory of the place, the years I spent there were th blackest of my life and I have had rough times like everyone. After leaving I never saw any of my contemparies and locked it away somewhere in my mind. By chance I met another ex pupil who started talking about his time at De La Salle and it was a revelation. His experience there was similar to my own and it opened up all the negativity. I honestly don't think I've ever got over the feelings of lack of worth and self confidence that place seem to create in me. As I approach retirement age I'm happy and and have a loving family around me. My memories of the school and those black buzzards are still there. I was a devout Catholic whilst at the school and throughout my childhood but haven't been practising for 40 years now.

 

Anyone remember Brother Gabriel ? I've never seen his name written on this thread before unlike Victor ( vicious bully), Alpheus , Wilfred etc

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I remember one lad who undoubtedly had something of an affair with one of the (lay) teachers - we all knew about it and laughed at the lad's puffish stupidity.

But that was all I ever came across of sexual abuse and jiggery-pokery while in six years at DLSCS.

 

You might bear in mind, Torontony, that not only has the UK Supreme Court found against the DLS Brothers (£7 million compensation to victims ordered !) but in February 2014, the actual UN published a long official report condemning the whole Catholic Church for covering up child sexual abuse by brothers, priests and the like … the Sinner supported by his Hierarchy, eh ?

 

Do you think these people and their seniors were (are !) fit to be let near children ? A complete shambolic disgrace …

 

I can only relate my own experiences at DLS( 1956- 1961) . Although I can appreciate a lot of the stuff you report, as these people were not the types of friends you would choose to be voluntarily acquainted with. I will stand by my post, in which I said that no cases of sexual abuse were reported in the Sheffield DLS during my tenure. I was bashed around but never sexually assaulted.

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I'm with you tony, maybe our tough working class upbringing ensured we grimaced and bore the overstrict discipline and with the comraderie of fellow pupils just got on with life.life is too short to keep carrying baggage from the past.

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I'm with you tony, maybe our tough working class upbringing ensured we grimaced and bore the overstrict discipline and with the comraderie of fellow pupils just got on with life.life is too short to keep carrying baggage from the past.

 

Good point Pat, there was no easy ride when you came from Rotherham and the surrounding areas, Catcliffe and Brinsworth in my case.

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Very much so. I left the College in 1965. As I wrote previously I don't have one single positive memory of the place, the years I spent there were th blackest of my life and I have had rough times like everyone. After leaving I never saw any of my contemparies and locked it away somewhere in my mind. By chance I met another ex pupil who started talking about his time at De La Salle and it was a revelation. His experience there was similar to my own and it opened up all the negativity. I honestly don't think I've ever got over the feelings of lack of worth and self confidence that place seem to create in me. As I approach retirement age I'm happy and and have a loving family around me. My memories of the school and those black buzzards are still there. I was a devout Catholic whilst at the school and throughout my childhood but haven't been practising for 40 years now.

 

Anyone remember Brother Gabriel ? I've never seen his name written on this thread before unlike Victor ( vicious bully), Alpheus , Wilfred etc

 

I remember Brother Gabriel (or 'Gabby') as we used to call him, very well. I was there from '66-73 and Gabby took us for the later years French and also supervised us at Beauchief for games and cross-country, as I was in the school team. I remember he used to come to the showers to see us showering and during French class he called everyone 'master' followed by their surname. we had a boy in our class called Bates which, when he called his name out, he seemed to take great pleasure in pronouncing. We all thought he was perverted as he was full of innuendo like that and not really a very nice teacher.

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I have just been to see the new film SPOTLIGHT - about the paedophile scandal and child abuse by priests in Boston MASS, USA in 2002, tolerated by their then Cardinal Bernard Laws. Laws, as you will remember, dealt with a proven 249 cases of serious abuse by his priests by moving these men on to a new parish, after giving them a slap on the wrist …

 

He then wriggled and twisted and double-dealt behind the scenes to hide it all, years of it, estimated at affecting on the way to 1000 children. When caught out finally, he had to admit it all and be removed himself to another parish - in Rome, and a big promotion.

 

The Boston diocese had to pay American levels of compensation - and came very close to being bankrupted. This all actually happened in real life.

 

And at the end of the film, there is a very long list of other comparable RC paedophile scandals - and it's global in reach, and includes the good old UK.

 

It is a fine film, even though its content is wholly disgusting : the large-scale corruption of children by RC men of God and the Church's subsequent completely unforgivable attempt at cover-up, as if the priests were more important than the protection of innocent children and the lives they ruined.

 

Go and see the film - it is wholly true and it is even understated. And let the scales fall from your eyes about RC Men of God and how they are ALL saints worthy of our highest respect.

 

Wise up, brother …

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I'm with you tony, maybe our tough working class upbringing ensured we grimaced and bore the overstrict discipline and with the comraderie of fellow pupils just got on with life.life is too short to keep carrying baggage from the past"

 

 

 

Sorry but that's such an ignorant response. If you want to trade macho statements like " tough working class upbringing..." I think I can meet said criteria

 

---------- Post added 12-02-2016 at 20:19 ----------

 

time you grew up and realised films are "pretend"

 

 

Jesus wept

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