DUMFRIES (UNITED KINGDOM)
Daily Record [Glasgow, Scotland]
November 16, 2021
By Jackie Grant
The man is a former pupil of St Joseph’s College and was targeted by sexual predators when the school was run by the Marist Brothers between 1950 and 1981.
A man who was repeatedly raped as a child at a Dumfries school is considering legal action against the male religious order whose members carried out the abuse.
The 62-year-old is one of the former St Joseph’s College pupils who was targeted by sexual predators when the school was run by the Marist Brothers between 1950 and 1981.
Andrew, who still lives in the region, said: “My case is in the hands of solicitors in Glasgow.
“I’m considering a civil case because I want someone held responsible for what happened to me, and I don’t want any Catholic order entrusted with the care of children ever again.”
Andrew spoke out after an inquiry found that “systematic failures” made it easy for Marist Brothers to target children at the school.
He said: “I’m satisfied our evidence was taken on board and I’m relieved that after 50 years, we have been believed.
“I’ve been seeing a psychiatrist ever since I left that hellhole but it doesn’t matter how much counselling you have, you never forget the pain of being raped as a child by filthy, dirty old men.
“I’m glad that people now know what happened within the walls of that place.”
In a report published last Wednesday, Lady Smith, chairwoman of The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry, described evidence from victims at the school as “shocking and distressing”.
The inquiry was set up to investigate residential care establishments run by male religious orders.
Lady Smith heard harrowing evidence from former pupils detailing the sexual, physical and emotional abuse they endured.
She concluded that at St Joseph’s a number of Marist Brothers sexually abused children and that some victims were raped after a grooming process or in the course of a brutal attack.
Andrew attended the school as a boarder between the ages of 11 and 16 and said Marist Brothers started “grooming” him from his first day there.
Soon after he was horrifically sexually abused and raped on a regular basis.
He said: “I blamed myself for what happened and have carried the shame and guilt to this very day.
“I left as soon as I could on my 16th birthday and I told my mother what had happened to me but she didn’t believe me.
“She was a devout Catholic. After I told her, she never mentioned it again but she still expected me to go to Mass every Sunday.
“She’d been an outgoing person previously but once I told her she gradually became a Valium junkie.
“She’s dead now and some days I feel like I hate her for not believing me. Other days I feel like she was a victim of the Marist Brothers and the Catholic Church as well.
“She paid through the nose for an education for me that included being raped, tortured physically and mentally and fed food that you wouldn’t put down to a dog.”
The abuse Andrew suffered at the hands of the Marist Brothers has affected “every aspect” of his life.
He said: “I don’t trust anyone – particularly men – and I’ve never been able to form a proper relationship because I couldn’t talk to potential girlfriends about my past.
“I can’t sleep in a single bed because it reminds me of the beds in the dormitories at the school and what those evil, filthy old men did to me. They were criminals.”
Following the outcome of the inquiry Andrew is considering launching a civil case against the Marist Brothers.
“The Catholic Church hopes we give up and go away but I won’t”, he said.
“I’ve nothing but complete and utter contempt and hate for the church. They think they are untouchable.
“I stopped believing in God the day I went into that hellhole.
“I was probably given more Hail Mary’s for swearing than the Marist Brothers were given for raping us while they had collars round their necks.
“Me and the other victims will need to live with that for the rest of our lives.”