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ONE PAPER ... ALL THE NEWS from Dewsbury, Batley, Ossett, Mirfield, Liversedge, Birstall, Heckmondwike, Cleckheaton & Spen Valley
Friday October 24, 2014
12 MONTHS
No. 657
GUARANTEE
50p
SINS OF THE FATHERS By Staff Reporter
REEVELL v SHERRIFF Press speaks to Tory MP and Labour hopeful p4-5
ELEVEN men who trained as priests in Mirfield have detailed the dreadful sexual abuse they suffered.
• Decades of sexual abuse by priests in Mirfield exposed • Victims receive £120,000
‘Priests told victims to remove their clothes before assaulting them. The abuse included sado-masochism’ MIRFIELD 1964: Father John Pinkman, accused of abusing boys at the Verona Fathers seminary, coached the football team
CHEERS New Bulldogs dance group Sport
SCENE OF ABUSE: The former St Peter Claver College at Roe Head – now home to the unconnected Hollybank Trust
The victims were paid £120,000 in an out-of-court settlement by the Catholic mission which ran the former St Peter Claver College. The men, boys at the time, were abused in the 1960s and 1970s at Roe Head, which is now home to the Hollybank Trust. Many were abused as part of bogus medical exams and during individual tutorials on the ‘facts of life’. Priests told victims to remove their clothes before assaulting them. The abuse included sado-masochism. In going public, the victims, who now live across the world, waived their right to anonymity. They are: Mark Murray; John Spencer; Ben Morgan; Brian Hennessy; Frank Warner; Jim Kirby; Tony Smith; Sean Dooley; Gerry McLaughlin; Victor West and Kevin Scullin. John Spencer said: “It caused me a lot of psychological damage. I suppressed all my feelings and found it very difficult to trust or have relationships.” The college was run by Italian sect the Verona Fathers, who are now known as the Comboni Missionaries. It had no connection to the Community of the Resurrection religious order based on Stocksbank Road, nor to the Hollybank Trust, who took over the Roe Head site in 1990. A spokesman for the order said payouts were made on a “commercial basis” and with “no admission of liability”. Records named two main abusers, Fr John Pinkman, who died in South Africa in 1984, and Fr Domenico Valmaggia, who died in Italy in 2011. A case against another alleged abuser, Fr Romano Nardo, who lives in Italy, is still being pursued. Det Insp Michael Brown, of West Yorkshire Police, said: “All legal avenues have been pursued to enforce Fr Nardo’s return to the UK. “But his ill health means we are unable to go through the formal procedures to extradite him.” Matthew Blake, a lawyer for 10 of the victims, said some received as little as £7,000 and risked having the case timebarred if they did not settle. He said: “The guys weren’t after money. They wanted recognition that it happened and they want people to know it had been denied.” At least two more cases are pending
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