A post below from David who went to St John’s College – a De La Salle school in the past and possibly still associated with the DLS by David’s era. The school has come up on this site before with previous negative testimonies from De La Salle Old Boys.
If anyone can help David with his enquiry, do put your information or your contact details in the comments section.
WordPress can sometimes be a bit clunky, so if that doesn’t work,or if you would prefer, send it to me : patmillswriter@gmail.com And I will forward your information to David.
I do hope someone can help.
My name is David Carter I studied at St John’s College Junior School. My memory is very hazy and the dates I am unsure of, however, I imagine I started in 1979 or 1980 when I was 7 or 8 leaving at age of 12 to go to a co-ed school in Waterlooville called Oaklands Comprehensive.
Three out of my four brothers also attended the school, two brothers were elder and the third was younger than me.
I and my two older brothers attended St John’s Cathedral choir school, boarding on Tuesday and Thursday evenings.
Not sure my younger brother attended the choir school as a boarder, only a daytime student at St John’s College. He was spared the experience I am about to describe.
I am looking to find anyone who experienced abuse whilst attending either St John’s College or the Portsmouth Cathedral Choir School during any period of their lives.
There are two specific students I would love to reach out to:
Damian McGovern and another student called Julian. I shared a room with both of these guys and I remember them to be full-time boarders.
During the daytime at St John’s College, the older boys would touch the younger boys. Boarding at the choir school the same happened, and I remember sitting with Father Whitehead watching the film Papillon with Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman. I remember not quite sitting on Father Whitehead’s knee and watching the film, whilst he re-winded the scene when Papillon escapes one of the prisons with the help of the jailer who is homosexual and touches Papillon underneath his bedclothes as part payment for help to escape.
I remember being touched beneath my bedsheets when boarding on Tuesday and Thursday. I believe the perpetrators were Father Whitehead or Mrs. White or worse still both.
I would like to speak to anyone who went to St John’s College, either to confirm or deny my experience as I search for closure around the topic of abuse in the church.
David.
Pat Mills 