Report reveals sex abuse at top Belfast school
Six boys were victims of multiple sex abuse at a top fee-paying school, a damning report revealed today.
Pupils aged 10 were assaulted by a prefect in the dormitories of Cabin Hill, the preparatory school of Campbell College in east Belfast.
Even though the then headmaster, Chris Dyer, investigated the affair, the full scale of the scandal did not emerge until years later after the father of one victim, allegedly raped, demanded action.
Mr Dyer, who is now dead, kept confidential notes of his inquiries into the abuse over a six-month period 12 years ago but never alerted police or the social services, the report prepared for the Department of Education in the North found.
It followed a huge investigation which involved former pupils who were among 50 witnesses who made statements.
One abused boy frightened into silence by the ordeal told the inquiry: “I just gritted my teeth and wished it was over.”
The shocking report into the school’s handling of the affair claimed the board of governors at Campbell College said the action taken by Mr Dyer fell short of good professional practice and the school’s management arrangements did not provide adequate child protection.
School authorities had lacked openness and sensitivity to pupils’ needs and the rights of their parents to be told what had gone on in the dormitories between August 1992 and January 1993.
Mr Dyer informed a doctor and school matron only after the prefect, then aged 13, confessed his actions to him under pressure from pupils older than most of the victims.
The prefect was later cautioned by police and placed on the sex offenders register.
It was six years later that the horrific level of abuse emerged after the boy who suffered worst underwent psychiatric treatment at a specialist adolescents unit, aged 17.
By that stage Mr Dyer, who left Cabin Hill – one of Northern Ireland’s most exclusive prep schools – in 1996, had died.
But a police witness told the inquiry that if he had still been alive he could have been questioned about withholding information from the proper authorities.
Education Minister Barry Gardiner admitted: “The report does not make comfortable reading and provides all who have a duty to safeguard and promote children’s welfare with much to reflect on.”
A statement from the board of governors said no member, either past or serving, had been made aware of any incident of sexual abuse or misconduct until June 1999.
It confirmed that legal action involving the parents of a victim, known as Boy A, was pending and claimed its handling of the allegations, as they were then perceived, had become constrained.
But they also admitted they may have appeared insensitive.
It added: “The school regrets the distress of pupils which has come to light in the course of this inquiry and undertakes to ensure that the highest standards of child care are maintained as an enduring and obvious characteristic of the school.”
