Jury takes less than an hour to clear retired principal of 13 charges of abusing young boy
A JURY took less than an hour yesterday to clear a retired headmaster who had been accused of repeated historic sex abuse against a young boy.
The Craigavon Crown Court jury of four men and eight women returned with 13 unanimous not guilty verdicts, clearing William Lloyd-Lavery of all charges.
Mr Lloyd-Lavery, from Richmond Avenue in Lisburn, was principal of Lurgan Technical College from 1992 to 1997.
As the jury forewoman announced the verdicts to each count, Mr Lloyd-Lavery nodded his approval, while his son, sat just a few feet away in the public gallery, wept tears of relief and was comforted by his mum beside him.
Thanking the jury for their service, trial Judge Patrick Lynch QC told Mr Lloyd-Lavery that he was free to go and, leaving the dock, he thanked the judge.
Mr Lloyd-Lavery, who once claimed to be a direct descendant of a Russian tsar and was a one-time Press secretary to a former Ulster Unionist mayor, always denied the offences.
He had been accused of seven counts of indecent assault, four of committing an act of gross indecency with or towards a child, one of inciting a child to engage in an act of gross indecency, and one of taking an indecent photograph of a child.
All were alleged to have been committed on dates unknown between December 29, 1980 and February 1, 1988.
Mr Lloyd-Lavery was unanimously cleared on every charge.
The 71-year-old had given evidence on his own behalf, denying that he had ever done anything against the complainant, labelling the allegations as a “pack of lies” which “did not happen and could not have happened”.
It had been the Crown case that between the ages of six and around 13, Mr Lloyd-Lavery had touched the boy inappropriately, invited the boy to touch his private parts, performed a sex act in the boy’s presence, and at one stage took a Polaroid photo of the complainant’s half-naked body.
The jury also heard claims that last Monday in the toilets of the courthouse, Mr Lloyd-Lavery and the complainant had an inadvertent meeting with the complainant telling them the defendant “looked me in the face and said ‘I’m sorry’”, with the prosecution inviting them to infer that was “actually an apology for abusing him”.
However, Mr Lloyd-Lavery told the jury from the witness box that he did not recognise his accuser and had not uttered a single word to him in the toilet.
During his evidence in chief, the specifics of the allegations were put to Mr Lloyd-Lavery and he told defence QC Kieron Mallon: “I certainly did nothing
❝ There is no truth in it — it did not happen hundreds of times, it did not happen once
of the kind — I’m quite outraged by it.”
Mr Lloyd-Lavery told Mr Mallon the account given by the complainant “is complete lies and nonsense (with) no truth in it whatsoever”.
He told the court and jury the claims against him are “ridiculous and a complete lack of lies”.
“There’s no truth in it — it didn’t happen hundreds of times, it didn’t happen once,” he declared.
Outside the courthouse as he was leaving, Mr Lloyd-Lavery declined to comment, telling reporters: “I have nothing to say.”