The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Ex-pupil reveals horrific ordeals
Trial only told part of the story, says man who was raped and tortured at Fife school
A man who suffered years of horrific abuse at St Ninian’s School said the trial only told part of the story.
Dave Sharp, 57, who was sent to the Falkland school in the 1970s, claimed he was groomed, raped, tortured and trafficked to Ireland to be abused.
He gave evidence to police as part of the four-year inquiry into the scandal, but his testimony was omitted from the trial because his alleged abuser, Brother Gerard Ryan, is now deceased.
“This is the biggest case in Scotland, forget the Savile stuff,” he said.
“No one has ever investigated the fact people were taken out of St Ninian’s and trafficked over to Ireland.
“The police are not interested in investigating that.”
He told The Courier he was taken to Ireland by Brother Ryan on at least two occasions and subjected to terrifying ordeals.
And he believes there were multiple paedophile rings in operation across the UK and Ireland.
Deeply traumatised by the catalogue of abuse he suffered at St Ninian’s, Mr Sharp blacked out his worst memories.
But later in life, the memories reappeared in the form of debilitating flashbacks.
One grim episode was brought back to him following a phone call from a fellow victim who was also trafficked to Ireland.
The other man told Mr Sharp how they would be taken into a back garden, where a coffin was dug into the ground.
Mr Sharp said: “I was told, ‘he used to put you in the coffin and put the lid over it, and throw stones, then leave you there for ages. Then he would take you out and rape you.’ “I’d completely blanked it out.” He added: “On my first day at St Ninian’s, I was beaten up by a lot of guys who were the Glasgow gang.
“A couple of weeks later, I was in bed and this guy said ‘come with me’. That was the start of five years of sexual abuse and torture.
“I remember waking up naked, sitting on his knee. This was the start of the grooming process.
“They want you to feel loved. They want you to feel that you’re the number one person in their life.”
Mr Sharp said boys would be taken to the basement wearing just small towels and told to line up.
“Brother Ryan would walk down and perv at you,” he said.
“Sometimes they would leave you there the whole night, in the dark, petrified and freezing cold.
“Other times he would take out a big belt, bend me over a sink, beat me, gag me and rape me.”
He is now campaigning for victims of historic abuse to be given more support.
Chief Inspector Nicola Shepherd, the senior investigating officer for the case, said: “Everything that everybody has told us as part of this investigation was all disclosed to the Crown.
“Not all our victims are alive today, and not all the suspects are alive today.
“I’ve no doubt that if some of them were alive, there would have been further prosecutions.”