A former pupil at a Christian Brothers school in Fife told a jury he remembered waking up in his dormitory with no pyjama bottoms on.
The 50-year-old man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told prosecutor Kath Harper: “I woke up on one occasion, no in fact two occasions with no jammie bottoms on. They were on the floor.”
When asked if he put them on the floor himself, the man replied: “No.”
Miss Harper asked: “Did you feel anything unusual,” he replied: “I was erect.”
The man was giving evidence as the trial relating to allegations of historical child sexual abuse at St Ninian’s School in Falkland continued at the High Court in Glasgow.
John Farrell, who was a Christian Brother, denies indecently assaulting the man – when he was aged between 13 and 16 – on various occasions between March 3, 1980 and May 28, 1982, by removing his lower clothing when he was sleeping and handling his private parts.
The witness added: “On one occasion I felt someone sitting by my bedside. It was very dark. But the hall lights were on and I could see a shadow.”
The man said he got up after about five minutes put his bottoms on and went to the toilet. He added: “When I came back Brother Farrell was standing there.”
He added that he had noticed a “damp, fusty beer smell,” and was asked what he connected that smell with and replied: “Brother Farrell.
The man also claimed that Farrell struck him with a belt.
Under cross-examination by Edward Targowski QC, representing Farrell, the man agreed that he had visited Farrell in hospital in 1993 when he had had a heart bypass, and a few years later had had him as a guest at his wedding.
Mr Targowski said: “You can’t have thought he had sexually assaulted you if you visited him in hospital,” and the man answered: “It was always at the back of my mind. I always wondered if it was a dream or real.”
The QC then said: “As far as Brother Farrell is concerned he never sexually assaulted you at all,” and the man replied: “Not true.”
Farrell also denies striking the boy with a belt on his body on one occasion between March 1980 and May 1982.
Co-accused William Don, a gym teacher at the school, denies assaulting the man between March 1980 and May 1982 by striking him with a flag pole and a hockey stick.
The witness claimed that he had been hit once by Don, then said it was twice.
He added: “He grabbed me by the privates and hit me with a corner flagpole, or a cricket bat or a hockey stick.”
The man agreed with defence counsel Laura Thomson, representing Don, that he had given a number of accounts of what he alleged happened.
Miss Thomson said: “Not all your stories can be correct,” and he replied: “It was once or twice. I can’t remember, but I was hit.”
John Farrell, 73, Paul Kelly, 63, Edward Egan, 78, Michael Murphy, 76, and William Don, 61, are accused of physically and sexually abusing boys at the former St Ninian’s.
They deny the charges against them.
The trial before judge Lord Matthews continues.
