A survivor who gave evidence to the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry has slammed the report into St Ninian’s in Fife as a “massive cover-up”.
Dave Sharp, 62, who attended the former residential school in Falkland from 1971 to 1975, said Lady Smith’s findings omitted some of the worst abuse that went on while he was in the care of the Christian Brothers.
“I had 24 hour, 365 days a year abuse for years, and yet all the inquiry report says about Dave Sharp is he suffered the most horrific physical and sexual abuse,” he said.
“How dare you say that, use my name and don’t say what actually happened.
“I’m deeply, deeply shocked. There is so much wrong with this report.
“The whole thing is a massive cover-up.”
Mr Sharp was one of 42 witnesses who gave evidence to the inquiry as part of the investigation into abuse by the Christian Brothers at Falkland.
Irish trafficking claims
He claims he was prevented from giving evidence about being “trafficked” to Ireland and other locations to be abused by priests.
Mr Sharp said: “There’s no mention of being taken over to Ireland, despite lots of men coming forward and saying the same thing happened to them.
“We were taken out, taken to houses where there were priests and in the back garden they would have a coffin in the ground, and they would put us in it and shut the lid and put stones over to simulate a burial and leave you there for ages, hours.”
He added: “It’s shocking in its omission of the things that happened there. There were day trips. People were coming in minibuses to abuse children.
“They would have a party, running around the dormitories, steaming drunk, grabbing children.
“We were also taken out and trafficked all over Scotland.”
Mr Sharp is now a campaigner for justice for child abuse victims having overcome drug abuse and homelessness.
He said he wanted to talk directly to Lady Smith because he did not have faith in the system.
“I would like a meeting, just me and Lady Smith, because we know that any letters or e-mails that get sent don’t go to Lady Smith,” he said.
“There’s no doubt about it, I wasn’t allowed to say the things I wanted to say to the public inquiry. I wasn’t allowed to talk about being trafficked to Ireland.”
