Diocese of Middlesbrough
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James Carragher, principal of the former St. William's residential school,
Market Weighton owned by the Diocese of Middlesbrough, was jailed for 14 years in 2004 for abusing boys in his care over a 20-year period.
[266] The principal and the chaplain (Anthony McCallen) at the school were both given prison sentences in 2016. The sentencing judge said:
The victims were effectively trapped and there was no escape from you. They were confused, frightened and in turmoil. It has blighted their lives and each of you had contributed significantly to their misery. [Victims endured] severe long-term, continuing psychological harm as a result of what you did
[267]
Over 200 former pupils at St William's say they were abused there. Many former pupils are suing for compensation. The school catered for boys with emotional and behavioural problems.
[268]
Ealing Abbey, St Benedict's School
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In 2009, Dom David Pearce, a monk of
Ealing Abbey and former headmaster of the junior department of its associated school,
St Benedict's, was sentenced to eight years in prison for sexually abusing boys.
[269] In April 2006, civil damages were awarded jointly against Pearce in relation to an alleged assault by Pearce on a pupil while teaching at the school in the 1990s, although
criminal charges were dropped.
[270]
In October 2017, Andrew Soper (known as Father Laurence), former abbot of Ealing Abbey, was found guilty on 19 sexual offences against pupils of St Benedict's school in the 1970s and 1980s.
[271][272]
Downside School
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In 2004, a Benedictine monk was jailed for 18 months after taking indecent images of schoolboys and possessing child pornography when he was a teacher at
Downside School.
[273] In January 2012, Father Richard White, a monk who formerly taught at the school, was jailed for five years for gross indecency and indecent assault against a pupil in the late 1980s. White, 66, who was known to pupils as Father Nick, had been allowed to continue teaching after he was first caught abusing a child in 1987 and was able to go on to groom and assault another pupil in the junior school. He was placed on a restricted ministry after the second incident, but was not arrested until 2010. Two other Downside monks, also former teachers, received police cautions during an 18-month criminal trial.
[274][275]
In May 2020, it was revealed that a 2018 Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) report regarding child sex abuse at Downside School later resulted major financial problems for the school due to spiralling legal costs.
[276] In order to raise money, Downside was forced to sell some of its Renaissance-era paintings.
[276]
Case of Francis McDermott
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In March 2019, Father Francis McDermott was sentenced to 9+1⁄2 years in prison for molesting six children in London, Norwich and High Wycombe between 1971 and 1978.
[277]