Latest news with #StAugustine's
Extra.ie
30-06-2025
- Extra.ie
Student suffered relentless abuse at hands of Christian Brother
Wayne Farrell was sitting at home on the couch when he casually picked up a copy of the Irish Mail on Sunday. It was January 28, 2018. Wayne cannot read or write, but as he flicked through the pages, a picture of an old man caught his eye. The photo was of Brother Aidan Clohessy. It was then that something in Wayne snapped. 'That's when it happened,' Wayne recalls. 'I just broke down, sitting on the sofa, and I threw it [the paper] on the ground.' Aidan Clohessy. Pic: Collins Courts Suddenly, Wayne was full of rage. He was crying uncontrollably, too. 'What's wrong?' asked his sister Michelle, seeing his distress. For the first time in his life, Wayne, who was then 44, told her about St Augustine's. Wayne was eight when he was transferred there after his First Holy Communion. Prior to that, he'd been attending 'Benincasa School for slow learners' run by the Dominican order in Blackrock, south Dublin. St Augustine's, located on nearby Carysfort Avenue and run by the St John of God order, was a school for individuals with mild intellectual disabilities. Wayne Farrell. Pic: Tom Honan Brother Aidan Clohessy was the school principal at St Augustine's from the early 1970s until 1993. Within a year of arriving at the school, Wayne was targeted. The abuse could happen anywhere – at the pool, in the gym and often in the principal's office. 'He was watching all the time. And he'd just stand there, staring.' 'You just knew he was coming for you,' Wayne recalls. 'He'd touch me on the shoulder, and I'd look around and he'd say: 'Come with me, son.' You knew you were in trouble then.' Aidan Clohessy. Pic: Collins Courts Each day, as he got off the bus at the school gates, Wayne faced a new nightmare. Walking into the building, he'd watch for any tell-tale sign of trouble from Brother Aidan. 'He'd be standing at the double doors with his hands in his pockets. As soon as he'd seen you, he'd have the comb over the hair, and you f***ing knew you were going to get done that day. You knew it. You would feel it.' Brother Aidan's office was through the school's main double doors and up the corridor, on the right-hand side. There was then one step up into the room. Inside, Wayne remembers a religious statue, a sink, a desk to the left, chairs and a window opposite the door. Through the window, a pond outside was visible. The first time Brother Aidan called Wayne to his office, he had no idea what was in store. Removing a key from his pocket, Brother Aidan locked the door from the inside and returned the key to his trousers. No escape was possible. Then it began. 'Take off your clothes,' Brother Aidan ordered. At first, Wayne refused. 'No.' Then Brother Aidan reached for his cane and drew his belt from around his waist. 'What do you want?' he asked, threatening Wayne with a beating, a frequent occurrence for students at St Augustine's. 'I don't want anything,' answered Wayne, confused. Brother Aidan grabbed Wayne by the ear and lifted him up. 'Son, you listen and do what I tell you,' he warned. Eventually, Wayne gave in. 'I stripped off and he sat in front of me naked. He came around behind me. He would always put his arm on my shoulder, and he'd say: 'Son, no words.' Then he started rubbing his penis up and down me backside.' Over the years, that phrase – 'son, no words' – was replaced with a menacing gesture that haunts Wayne to this day. Every time Brother Aidan placed his forefinger over his lips in a shushing motion, Wayne knew what was about to happen. He still remembers the gold ring on Brother Aidan's hand, with an embedded red gemstone, and the way he kept twisting it. Once, Wayne ran for the window to escape. But it was hopeless. 'I tried to get out of it one day because he had me naked. He gave me such a whack that I just [fell over] backwards.' Wayne travelled to school on the bus, but sometimes he'd be called to the office after school. When that happened, he'd miss the bus and have to walk home afterwards. The walk down Carysfort Avenue into Blackrock and back to Dún Laoghaire took an hour. 'It was eating away at me all the time' 'In winter it was horrible,' he recalls, breaking into tears. After several years, Wayne's mother pulled him from St Augustine's. She never said why. She must have seen the bruises from the beatings. She couldn't possibly have imagined the rest. Wayne never spoke about the abuse until 2018 when he saw this newspaper, when he finally opened up to his sister. Wayne's dream was to be a fireman or a policeman, but he'd never learned to read or write in St Augustine's. Just how to be afraid. He was a champion swimmer, though, and from the age of 18 he volunteered with the Dún Laoghaire lifeboat crew. Wayne would go on to save many lives and win bravery awards for dramatic and selfless rescues at sea. He also often worked as a diver, recovering submerged bodies for the emergency services. But since he suffered three minor strokes in recent years, Wayne has been unable to volunteer any more. His beloved daily swims in Dublin Bay have ceased. For work, Wayne served time on fishing trawlers, helped at a funeral home and even had a stint as a Dublin Bus driver on the famous 46A route. He always tried to keep busy, to run ahead of the memories that chased him. But it never worked. 'I tried to put it behind me, but it was eating away at me all the time. When you get time to think about these things it just comes back. It never goes,' he says. Meanwhile, Wayne never felt he could tell anyone. 'Imagine going home to your friends or relatives to tell them that had happened to you. Them days they wouldn't believe you because of the Catholic religion. That was God. And that was it.' At night, he medicates to keep the memories and emotions at bay. 'I take sleeping tablets at nighttime to make me sleep because I wake up so angry. If I knew where he was, I'd go after him.' Today, Wayne feels let down by 'He stole everything I wanted in life' 'When I was young, I was in the care of the State because I'm a slow learner. I was f***ing abused under their watch. 'I'd love to meet the Minister for Justice and say it to them – how do you think I feel? Has it ever happened to you? Yet you let him [Brother Aidan] walk around.' Unable to read or write, Wayne never even knew that the Redress Board existed. Set up in 2002 in the wake of the Ryan Commission into abuse at religious-run schools, the board ran a now-closed compensation scheme. But he doesn't care. For Wayne, it was never about the money. He only ever wanted justice for what Brother Aidan did to him. 'He has stolen everything I wanted in life,' he told in the days before Brother Aidan's trial began this month. 'I want justice done. I hope justice is done. 'I'm not afraid of him. I'm a big guy now. What he did is a crime – if I did what he did, I'd be in jail. So what's the difference with him? 'I want to go into court. I want to be there to tell the judge what he's done. That's all I want, for him to get put away, even for a month, because at the moment, he's walking around. I want that f***er in jail. I don't care if he's 101. I'll wheel him to jail. I'll put him in a wheelchair to jail.' This week, Wayne finally got his wish as his abuser, now 85, was convicted of 19 counts of indecent assault following two separate trials at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court last month and sentenced to a total of five years and four months in prison. However, the trial almost never took place, and Wayne was very nearly not involved in it. Numerous victims from St Augustine's came forward to the Redress Board two decades ago, and their cases were settled in secret. No prosecution resulted, and Brother Aidan remained free. Then in 2018, tracked down former St Augustine's pupils who had never been before the Redress Board and published their statements. A week after he saw Brother Aidan's face in that newspaper coverage, Wayne walked up to the counter in his local Garda station. 'I want to report an incident of sexual assault that happened at school,' he told the officer at the front desk. 'When did it happen?' he was asked by the garda. 'When I was young,' he answered. 'I was sexually assaulted in school – what do I do? Through the hatch, Wayne was asked to provide his name and number on a blank sheet of paper. 'I'll arrange for you to come in,' he was told. 'We'll be in touch.' Wayne walked back out the door that day thinking that he'd made a giant personal leap. But nothing ever happened. No one called. The bravery he had shown in coming forward, after years of silence and shame, had all been for nothing. 'I felt I was getting somewhere, but I was let down by the State again,' he says. Five years later, in 2022, Wayne called this reporter for the first time. He had nowhere left to turn. The day after his call, I sat down with Wayne on a bench at Bulloch Harbour, overlooking Dublin Bay, and he shared his story with me. The harbour, where his family run a small lobster business, is a special place for Wayne. 'I come down here out of the way of everyone,' he says. 'I don't socialise, really, because I fear people. I'm down here out of the way of everything.' Aidan Clohessy had, at this point, been charged with the abuse of the other St Augustine's pupils that our 2018 investigation had been able to track down. But the Garda team responsible were unaware of Wayne, despite his visit to his local station to report his abuse, years beforehand. That was corrected only when we provided Wayne with the details of the team that was prosecuting Brother Aidan. This week, after many let-downs and many years, Wayne finally got his chance to tell the court what Brother Aidan did to him and to see his abuser get justice.
Extra.ie
29-06-2025
- Extra.ie
The timeline of Br Aidan Clohessy's career of predatory abuse
This week, St John of God brother, former principal at St Augustine's School, Blackrock, and predatory paedophile Br Aidan Clohessy, was sentenced to five years and four months in prison for the indecent assault of six minors. The two main witnesses against him came forward due to previous coverage in this publication, when we revealed Clohessy's identity, which was previously cloaked as 'Brother D' in a 2015 Safeguarding Report into the order. This week, we reveal approx €3m in settlements and fresh victims of abuse in Malawi, where, until 2012, Clohessy was revered in the country's third-largest city, Mzuzu, as a righteous man of God. Brother Aidan Clohessy. Pic: Collins Courts The following timeline details the painstaking, expensive and at times frustrating lengths to which our journalists went to unmask a monster, and to hold to account an order's shocking inaction in the face of mounting allegations, to leave street children in harm's way. These children have now become men and have made numerous sickening allegations, in Irish court documents and to which, given the nature of his convictions, are very likely to be true but which, in any case, St John of God is in no position to deny. 1969: Aged 30, Br Aidan Clohessy is assigned to St Augustine's School for intellectually disabled boys. 1969 – 1971: On an unknown date during these years, Patsy Carville, a pupil who lives at the school, is sexually assaulted by Clohessy in a gym store room. 1972: Clohessy, who becomes known to pupils as Br Aidan becomes principal of St Augustine's. 1973 – 1989: On various dates between these years, Clohessy sexually assaulted five other pupils, including Joe Devine, Gerry Quinn and Wayne Farrell. 1985: THE St John of God (SJoG) order receives its first child sex abuse complaint about Clohessy. It is disregarded and not referred to the gardaí. He continues to abuse. 1991: The SJoG order implements its first-ever code for dealing with abuse allegations. It stipulates that anyone accused of abuse should be suspended or assigned duties that 'remove him from other children or clients' pending an investigation. 1993: Clohessy takes a five-year 'career break' and is dispatched to Malawi by then Irish Provincial, Br Donatus Forkan. Brother Aidan Clohessy. Pic: Collins Courts 1994: In Rome, Br Forkan is elected a general councillor of the order, making him one of the five most senior members globally. 1995: Makaiko Chimaliro, a 12-year-old homeless child in Mzuzu, Malawi, is taken from the streets by Br Aidan to live in his home. He is routinely sexually abused. 1997: Back in Ireland, Clohessy's order receives a second abuse complaint against him relating to St Augustine's. Then-Provincial Br Fintan Whitmore forbids Clohessy from having any contact with children in Malawi. This instruction is ignored and never enforced. Meanwhile, in Mzuzu, John Phiri, an eight-year-old living on the streets, is taken in by Br Aidan, who later begins abusing John when he turns 12. 1999: Br Aidan invites Edward Phiri, an 11-year-old sleeping rough at the Mzuzu bus station, to his home. In the same year another street child, Stephen Chiumia, also moves in. Both are routinely abused. Meanwhile, back in Ireland, then-Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, below, makes an unreserved State apology to all victims of child abuse in publicly funded institutions such as St Augustine's. This paves the way for the Ryan Commission and a compensation scheme, the Redress Board. 2000: In Rome, Br Forkan is elected First General Councillor – making him the second most powerful member of the St John of God order worldwide. Brother Aidan Clohessy. Pic: Collins Courts JUNE 12, 2001: The Government publishes the legislation to set up the Redress Board. St Augustine's is not initially listed as a qualifying institution. MARCH 28, 2002: The Redress Board legislation is passed by the Dáil with last-minute changes that include St Augustine's for the first time. Now, anyone abused by Clohessy at St Augustine's can be compensated via the Redress Board in secret. He, meanwhile, remains living with and abusing children in Malawi. 2003: Redress Board payments begin to be made in secret to some of those abused by Clohessy at St Augustine's. By now, SJoG has received 10 abuse complaints against him directly. These are separate from any unknown number of complaints about him processed in secret by the Redress Board [a number the order still refuses to disclose]. SJoG writes to Clohessy (in Africa) to tell him 'not to have direct responsibility for programmes attended by children'. This instruction is again ignored and again not enforced. Some of those who received Redress Board compensation make criminal complaints to gardaí. These go nowhere. JULY 16, 2004: Then-Irish Provincial Br Fintan Whitmore testifies before the Ryan Commission. He misleads the inquiry by saying his order never received any abuse complaints until 1996, though the first complaint against Clohessy had been received more than a decade earlier in 1985. He also does not mention that he had instructed him to have no contact with children in 1997, while leaving Clohessy responsible for the care of children in Africa regardless. Asked why his order decided to contribute €1m to the Redress Board despite never having had any arrests or prosecutions for abuse, Br Whitmore tells the commission the indemnity provided by the Redress Board was an 'attractive proposition.' JULY 16, 2006: The Criminal Justice Act 2006 becomes law, making it a criminal offence for people in authority to recklessly endanger children by knowingly placing them at risk of abuse. Brother Aidan Clohessy. Pic: Seán Dwyer 20/05/25 OCTOBER 14, 2006: In Rome, Br Forkan is elected Prior General of the St John of God order, making him the global leader of the organisation. OCTOBER 28, 2006: In an address to the Irish bishops, Pope Benedict, right, focuses on child abuse in the Irish Church. He instructs the bishops to 'establish the truth of what happened in the past, to take whatever steps are necessary to prevent it from occurring again, to ensure that the principles of justice are fully respected, and above all, to bring healing to the victims and all those affected by these egregious crimes. 2007: In order to begin receiving funding from German children's charity Kindernothilfe, Br Aidan lies by signing a false declaration to say he has never been accused of child abuse. He goes on to secure more than €1m for the children's services he is overseeing in Mzuzu, even though his order has instructed him to have no contact with children. MAY 20, 2009: The Ryan Commission report is published. The St John of God order escapes any negative criticism, and St Augustine's is not mentioned at all. Clohessy, meanwhile, remains working with children in Africa as a new complaint relating to his time at St Augustine's is received. 2010: Clohessy and Br Forkan celebrate their Golden Jubilee together. Br Forkan goes on one of his frequent trips to Malawi, staying in Br Aidan's home. St John of God receives a new abuse complaint about Clohessy. Reacting to the publication of the Murphy Commission of Inquiry report into child abuse in Dublin, Pope Benedict issues a pastoral letter to the people of Ireland demanding 'urgent action' from the Irish Church saying 'a misplaced concern for the reputation of the Church and the avoidance of scandal' has failed to safeguard child abuse victims. 2011: The St John of God order, continues to receive new complaints against Clohessy, dating back to his time as principal of St Augustine's. After carrying out a 'risk assessment' the order concludes Clohessy represents a 'low risk of physical or sexual abuse' because, according to the order, he is 'not in a position of authority over children'. Yet Br Aidan remains living and working with children in Malawi, where no one has yet been informed of the allegations against him or the secret settlements made via the Redress Board 2012: After yet another complaint by a victim who first came forward in 1998, Clohessy is finally withdrawn from public ministry and his access to children restricted. But the reason for his withdrawal is kept secret. No efforts are made to establish if children under his care in Malawi since 1993 were abused. Twenty-seven years after the first 1985 complaint against Clohessy, his order belatedly forwards it to the gardaí. The complaint goes nowhere. 2013: Three more complaints relating to Clohessy's period at St Augustine's are received by his order, and a canonical inquiry is commenced by the Vatican. No one in Malawi, where Br Aidan lived and worked with children for 20 years, is informed of the Vatican investigation. 2014: Another three complaints relating to Clohessy's period at St Augustine's are made. He now faces 20 different sets of allegations from his time at the school. One of the complainants makes a formal garda statement. Clohessy denies any wrongdoing when interviewed by gardaí, and the DPP declines to prosecute at that stage. DECEMBER 2015: An audit by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland (NBSCCCI) is critical of SJoG's management of the complaints against Clohessy. The audit identifies him only as 'Brother D'. It also does not refer to his presence in Africa for two decades. The audit is welcomed by Br Donatus Forkan (who is Irish Provincial again) as evidence that no member of the order has ever been arrested or prosecuted for abuse. JULY 2016: publishes an investigation into €1.6m secret pay top-ups to SJoG executives. APRIL 13, 2017: As part of our continuing SJoG investigations, we inform Br Whitmore that we intend to report his inaccurate testimony to the Ryan Commission. In response, Br Whitmore and his order claim we have libelled him in our questions: 'Please note that our clients demand that you immediately, unequivocally and in writing, without any pre-conditions of any sort, retract these statements and comments and issue an unequivocal apology in writing to Br Fintan Whitmore, the St John of God Order and St John of God Community Services in default of which we expressly reserve our clients' rights to issue defamation proceedings.' APRIL 16, 2017: We publish the story about Br Whitmore's misleading commission testimony. Despite its threat, the order does not sue. Its reaction makes us want to establish the identity of 'Brother D' and track down victims. It quickly becomes clear that Br Aidan Clohessy is Br D. We resolve to prove and publish this. JUNE 22, 2017: We find and speak with former homeless heroin addict and St DWYER Augustine's pupil Con Carroll. He tells how he was abused by SEÁN Clohessy and how complaints to gardaí were dismissed by the DPP. With his help, we locate four other victims in Ireland. OCTOBER 2017: We travel to Malawi and speak with street children Br Aidan was allowed to have control over despite allegations against him. DECEMBER 2017: We confront Clohessy in Dublin. 'I don't think anybody is guilty until they're proved guilty,' he tells us. 'Innocent until proven guilty,' he adds. JANUARY 21, 2018: We name Br Aidan Clohessy as 'Brother D', an alleged paedophile, and outline the decades-long inaction that allowed him to continue to be in a position of power over children despite the allegations. Joe Devine, a former St Augustine's abuse victim who is unable to read or write, sees a photo of Clohessy on our front page. He and other victims, including Patsy Carville, right, come forward as a result of the coverage. Shortly afterwards, a Garda criminal investigation is launched. AUGUST 2018: Pope Francis visits Ireland and meets child abuse survivors. He tells them that priests who abuse children and those who cover up for them are nothing more than 'filth in the toilet'. JANUARY 4, 2019: Clohessy is interviewed voluntarily but under caution by gardaí. He denies abusing Patsy Carville and Joe Devine. 2021: Tired of waiting for a criminal prosecution, some St Augustine's victims begin to lodge civil cases in the High Court against Clohessy and SJoG. In an unprecedented legal move, Dublin law firm Coleman Legal also launches civil actions in Dublin on behalf of Br Aidan's victims in Malawi. The order will go on to settle these cases privately rather than let the cases be heard in open court. JUNE 9, 2021: Clohessy is interviewed, under caution, about another victim, Michael Duignan, right, who has come forward. Clohessy again denies everything. JANUARY 24, 2022: Another St Augustine's victim, Wayne Farrell, contacts Despite reporting his abuse to his local Garda station in 2018 when he saw our coverage, his case has been ignored. Now, five years later, we refer him to the garda team prosecuting Clohessy, and he becomes the State's lead witness. FEBRUARY 28, 2022: Clohessy is charged with multiple counts of indecent assault relating to four victims from St Augustine's. They include Joe Devine and Patsy Carville, who both came forward after they saw Clohessy's photo in the Mail on Sunday. His lawyers secure a court gagging order to prevent the charges from being reported publicly. MAY 7, 2022: A campaign of intimidation by parties in Malawi loyal to Br Aidan is launched against victims in Mzuzu. Victims are directly threatened with violence and offered cash to withdraw their complaints. In Dublin, St John of God condemns the intimidation. JUNE 20, 2022: Clohessy attends Blackrock Garda Station to be interviewed under caution about Wayne Farrell and Gerry Quinn. He denies everything. JUNE 25, 2022: and other media groups successfully apply to the Dublin Circuit Court to have the gagging order lifted. Clohessy is named in relation to the charges for the first time. OCTOBER 13, 2022: Clohessy is arraigned, and a trial date is set for November 2024, which is over two years away. NOVEMBER 7, 2022: An RTÉ Documentary On One: Blackrock Boys is broadcast. It sparks a renewed focus on historical abuse in religious-run schools and a Scoping Inquiry, which includes St Augustine's, is ordered by the Government. FEBRUARY 21, 2023: Clohessy is further charged with fresh counts against two new victims, including Wayne Farrell. SEPTEMBER 3, 2024: The Scoping Inquiry report is published. It confirms 112 allegations of abuse, involving 29 alleged abusers, that took place at St Augustine's. Many of the allegations relate to Clohessy. The Government approves a new Commission of Investigation into religious-run schools as recommended by the Scoping Inquiry. In the same week the report is published in Ireland, St John of God's lawyers negotiate settlements with more than a dozen victims in Mzuzu, without admitting any liability. APRIL-MAY 2025: After repeated adjournments and delays, two separate but back-to-back abuse trials against Clohessy begin at the Courts of Criminal Justice in Dublin. Due to recent changes in the law, he can't be named until convicted. He pleads not guilty, forcing his victims to testify in court even though St John of God has already paid civil settlements to most of them. Jurors remain ignorant of these pre-trial settlements. MAY 13, 2025: Clohessy is found guilty of 10 counts of abusing Gerry Quinn, right, and four counts of abusing Wayne Farrell in the first trial. MAY 30, 2025: Clohessy is found guilty of five additional counts of abuse against four others, including Joe Devine and Patsy Carville, in the second trial. JUNE 23 & 24, 2025: Clohessy is sentenced to four years for abusing Gerry Quinn and Wayne Farrell by Judge Elva Duffy. The next day, he is sentenced to a further 16 months for abusing Patsy Carville, Joe Devine, Michael Duignan and one other by Judge Martin Nolan. His total sentence is five years and four months. He informs the court he will not appeal the verdict of either trial. He is sent initially to Mountjoy Prison, where his prison number is 126787.
The Guardian
11-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
The Baby in the Basket review – devilish convent horror is low-budget nun fun
This cheap-as-chips British horror concerning demented nuns is risible in the extreme, but there's something about its willingness to commit to the bit that's sort of admirable. Plus, there's a faintly amusing retro vibe that harks back not just to low-budget 1970s horror of yore, but also to the so-called 'quota quickies' from the 1930s onwards, British film fare made by the yard. Set during the second world war on an island off the coast of Scotland, the film takes place almost entirely within the confines of a nunnery called St Augustine's. That said, there's an opening sequence where a nun is pursued by a wolf outside, a beast so happy to be playing with the actor his tail is up and wagging the whole time – he looks about as menacing as a cockapoo. She manages to escape being licked to death and gets inside where we meet the other players. Wafty Mother Superior (Maryam d'Abo) seems a couple beads short of a full rosary, which also goes for several of the fervent sisters: devout Valerie (Elle O'Hara), intense Agnes (Amber Doig-Thorne), and so on. The most relatable may be Eleanor (Michaela Longden), the least devout of the lot, and prone to lapses in sobriety. There are also two men employed as caretakers: Amos (Paul Barber from The Full Monty) and a younger former soldier, Daniel (Nathan Shepka, who is also one the film's co-directors as well as co-writer), who is hot for all the comely nunfolk. When a mysterious infant boy is dropped off at the nunnery's door, all hell breaks loose. Well, not quite hell; more like low-level demonic possession, as nun after nun starts hearing the voice of the devil telling them to take care of his kid and if they won't do that, kill themselves instead. Things soon get quite fractious, and before long there's a lot of bloody nun-on-nun violence, at one climactic point observed by two bored looking cherubim looking on from a painting. A little more psychological ambiguity might have elevated proceedings, but Shepka and co-director Andy Crane opt for full horror, with an evil horned puppet demon baby in the last act that's just silly, but in a sort of fun way. The Baby in the Basket is on digital platforms from 17 February.
