Dunleavy died this week while serving a 10 year prison sentence
A Newry survivor of a paedophile Christian Brother Paul Dunleavy has said “there is no justice in his death”. Former Abbey primary school headmaster Dunleavy was sentenced to 10 years in prison in November 2024 after being convicted of 36 charges against former pupils. He died on Tuesday (Aug 26) aged 89 at a hospital outside of Maghaberry jail. As a young boy, Brian Ellison became a victim of the unrepentant child abuser. Now as a 66 year old survivor, the Co Down man has submitted a call for a public inquiry to the Northern Ireland First and Deputy First Minister.
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Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) this week, Brian Ellison recalled a contrasting timeline before the “cover up began”. Brian said: “There is no justice in Dunleavy’s death. It’s sad that the victims and those are the ones who are now dead, three which I knew personally, never had justice, and believe me there are a hell of a lot more. “The reality is we are not going to have any more convictions, but I intend to bring a civil action and when I take that case I will go the whole way. “I am upset by the way his death is being reported and the fact that nobody had the decency of the courtesy to ring the survivors in advance of that disclosure. He died on Tuesday, they knew that, they had Tuesday and Wednesday to have contacted us, but nobody, nobody did it.”
He added: “It hasn’t been a good few days for me, it evokes everything. When I think of the people who are dead, that I knew and the way their lives were ruined because of the abuse.
“It does not bring closure, that will only come, and this is comes from a lot of survivors who have been through trials, they all want to hear a full and contrite apology and they want the redress to be dealt with.”
The former Abbey pupil, born in 1958 had lived almost 30 more years until the “demons” were awoken as survivors began to be heard and believed.
Brian said: “My late brother Kevin went to Rome in 1996 for the Beatification of Br Edmund Ignatius Rice the founder of the Christain Brothers, when he met with Pope John Paul II, because Kevin was the ‘miracle man’ having been cured by the relic of Edmund Rice. “And I made my first complaint to the RUC when Fr Brendan Smyth went to stand trial in 1997 and then the cover up started. The detective just sat there and listened, and did nothing, even though I gave him two witnesses. “I believe Dunleavy has about 500 people who he abused. When you understand how he would pick up vulnerable boys in his car, outside of school and abuse them and how many times that would happen..it beggars belief.”
A 2015 Historical Institution Abuse (HIA) inquiry, was held in Banbridge courthouse, Co Down, examining child abuse allegations in church, state and voluntary children’s residential institutions dating back to 1922. It set aside a dedicated module on the case of the late paedophile priest Brendan Smyth who was eventually convicted of more than 140 offences against children over a 40-year period and spent time in prison on both sides of the Irish border. Despite the decade old HIA, the Newry survivor is still pursuing a public inquiry to be actioned by Stormont.
Brian said: “Since Fr Brendan Smyth appeared on TV being extradited to the South of Ireland, that sparked it in all of us, everyone of us, that awakened a demon that had visited us when we were children of 9 to 11 years of age. Everybody I have met through all the trials has said that. “When I put it to Dunleavy that an apology was to be made by the now head of the Christian Brothers, a guy called (Br David) Gibson from South Africa, he just looked at me, he was just pure cold about it. “There is a document on a review of the procedures, I am involved in as well, and that paper has been written and sits in front of the First (Michelle O’Neill-SF) and Deputy First Minister (Emma Little-Pengelly-DUP). And it is basically looking for a public inquiry into abuse in NI and it is for all colours, creeds and nationalities. It sits there as it does, for them to peruse and and decide whether we get a public inquiry or not. I am not holding my breath.”
Brian added: “Absolutely from every survivor, and from the victims’ families, they want to hear that apology and they want the redress resolved, so they can start to move on with their lives. “This is not about money for compensation, it is redress. The man had been convicted many many times, but the records are wrong, I don’t know how somebody can quote figures of victims from convictions, when I know Dunleavy abused so many, many more. “It is no different to a murder or any other trial , you need closure and that only comes when the people who are accountable and responsible actually say, ‘we acknowledge your hurt’.”
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