St Williams sex abuse trial: Charges dropped against former teacher Michael Curran, by James Campbell, Hull Daily Mail (November 10, 2015)

St Williams sex abuse trial: Charges dropped against former teacher Michael Curran

A FORMER teacher has walked free from court during a trial into alleged sexual abuse at a Market Weighton school.

Charges of assault causing actual bodily harm and indecent assault against Michael Curran, 62, were dropped during the trial at Leeds Crown Court on Monday.

Judge Geoffrey Marson QC directed the jury to formally find Mr Curran not guilty on the two charges and he left the court a free man.

It was the second time Mr Curran has faced charges following a police investigation into allegations of abuse at the school. Last year, Humberside Police paid damages to Mr Curran and faced a legal bill that may run to £500,000 after two officers deliberately sought to secure his dismissal from his job in education, even though he had been cleared of any wrongdoing at court.

After Mr Curran was discharged yesterday, a spokesman for Humberside Police said: "We note the direction of the judge in relation to Mr Curran in the trial at Leeds Crown Court.

"The case continues against the remaining two defendants and therefore we are not in a position to comment any further at this stage."

James Carragher, 75, and Anthony McCallen, 69, remain on trial together at Leeds Crown Court, and between them are accused of almost 80 offences against former pupils at a residential home, run by the Roman Catholic De La Salle religious order, for "troubled" boys aged between 12 and 16 years.

Yesterday, a total of six charges each against Carragher and McCallen were dropped. All of them related to serious sexual assault and indecent assault.

Carragher, the principal of St William's, who has already received 21 years in prison for sexually abusing children at the home but denies a further 56 charges, gave evidence.

Carragher's barrister, Oliver Saxby QC, asked Carragher about his role in sexual abuse at the school.

Carragher said: "I abused 13 boys in my time at St William's. The last was in 1980, which was when I was discovered by another boy."

But the matter was never referred to the police after the boy retracted his statement.

Carragher said: "To my shame, I made him feel like the guilty one. I got away with it."

He said he was never involved in abuse with a third or fourth person and he never took any of the boys to a hotel. He also denied taking photographs of any abuse.

Carragher, known to the boys as "Brother James", was a member of the De La Salle order and was head and principal of St William's from 1976 to 1990.

The jury has previously been told he was jailed for seven years in 1993, and for 14 years in 2004, for offences committed at St William's.