ST JOHN’S COLLEGE PORTSMOUTH/PORTSMOUTH CATHEDRAL CHOIR

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.

BROTHER CYRIL – ST JOHNS

This info in from an Old Boy. Hope someone can help.

I boarded at St John’s in the 90’s. I was involved in brother Cyril’s Court case, in 95, and subsequent not guilty verdict. I Google his name regularly to see if anything has ever happened to him. I would be very happy to talk about this creature. I am still in contact with some of the other boys and we have often wondered if tgere is anybody else out there

Cyril was headmaster at St John’s when I boarded there in the 90s. I was a witness at his two trial’s. The first was a mis-trial and the second not guilty

I was invoked in Brother Cyrils trials if you wanted to talk.

BROTHER LAURENCE HUGHES: ST JOHN’S COLLEGE, SOUTHSEA

A recollection by Paul Pimms which I’m passing onto Jo Norman at Catholic Safeguarding.

I remember Brother Laurence Hughes very well indeed from when he taught at St John’s College in Southsea in the 1970’s (he left there to go to St Joseph’s). He loved being violent and not a week would pass without him slippering several boys with a hard soled slipper. His swing was mighty and hard. Sometimes he would have 5 or 6 boys lined up in a row. He clearly got off on it. I was also caned by him. He usually did this in his boarding house (Woodleigh), in the front lounge in front of the whole boarding house (around 38-40 boys). Sometimes he would take the boys into Woodleigh Annexe (a classroom joined onto Woodleigh House) and do it in a private session! You could see the rush that he got when he caned boys. You could see the euphoria in his face. It definitely gave him a buzz!

DE LA SALLE COVER-UPS

I think all of us are aware that there were cover-ups amongst the De La Salle Brothers. I remember how Brother Solomon suddenly – according to the playground grapevine at the time – went to Jersey, then onto Beulah Hill which he was thrown out from, subsequently possibly spending some time at Homan’s Boy Town (a disturbing location for this ‘Jimmy Savile of the De La Salle Order’) before returning to St Joseph’s as lay teacher Mike Mercado and then being thrown out again for sexual abuse.

I recall, as a boy, Brother James writing in the school magazine what a great asset Solomon was to the college and what a spiritual person he was. He clearly knew otherwise. It never rang true to me at the time.

Later, James himself got moved to Beulah Hill where his behavior was equally criminal. His obituary described him as a shy and timid man, not the violent rapist he really was. Once again, whoever wrote that obituary – almost certainly a DLS brother – must have known the truth and was lying through his teeth.

Similarly, when a startled Knight of St Columba (the Eminence Gris of St J’s) discovered the shocking evidence of violent abuse by James, he proclaimed ‘Oxford shall hear of this!’ I understand Oxford was and is the DLS centre of operations.

All these and many other references on this blog and elsewhere indicate a high level of collusion and cover-ups within the De La Salle Order. But it’s never been as clear cut and revealing a central control as the account below just in from Guy Lavender, an Old Boy of DLS school St Peter’s.

He refers to “an administrative organization” being responsible.

It could therefore be valuable in the days to come. Many thanks to Guy for this account and for allowing me to use his name.

                                       …………………………………

FROM GUY LAVENDER

Just read your latest post regarding the abuse at St J’s. It is a reminder to me and a stark jolt to put pen to paper and add my account. As you quite rightly quote “If you are able to speak up, but remain silent then we are implicitly condoning the wrongdoing of others” something along those lines.

As I mentioned before, I did not attend St Joseph’s school. I was a boarder at St Peter’s school, Bournemouth (1975-1982) This was also a Catholic School run by the De La Salle teaching order as you know. After reading all the blogs, accounts i draw striking similarities to what happened at St Peter’s during my time as a border there.

But there is more than that. Before I attended St. Peter’s, I had 2 older brothers who attended another school, St John’s college, Southsea, also run by the De La Salle order. They were borders from 1970 to 1977. Their accounts of going’s on and wrongful abuse of boys during that time is equally harrowing.

Now then. Because of my brothers accounts of the behaviour of certain individuals at St John’s (namely Br Cyril) my experiences at St Peter’s (at the hands of Brother Kevin literally) together with reading all the stories, posts and blogs on your website, I am in a unique position to add an interesting perspective on all this scandalous abuse. This is what I have pieced together.

Let’s start with Brother Kevin. After reading the accounts by borders at St Joseph’s there was quite obviously some woeful wrongdoings involving Brother Kevin during the mid to late 1960’s. Then he was suddenly moved overseas and conveniently out of the way to France for 1 to 2 years. Long enough for the scandal to blow away and all be forgotten about no doubt. After which he was again re-appointed in a position of ultimate trust over young boys as junior housemaster at St Peter’s School, Bournemouth at around 1969-1970. There he was given a free hand to recommence his sinister and evil operations ie the abuse of young boys under the pious illusion and disguise of a religious white dog collar. I, as a border at St Peter’s from September 1975, was witness to much of his immoral behaviour.

Then there was the case of Brother Cyril. The notorious, weird and known homosexual housemaster at St John’s college, Southsea. According to my brothers there were several incidents involving improper conduct involving young boys at the hands of Brother Cyril during his time as housemaster of junior division there at St John’s. This was approximately from 1972 up until his untimely and abrupt transfer to St Peter’s school at around 1978. Now then, I do recall remarking to him that I had 2 brothers who were, at the time, still boarders at St John’s college.  I strongly remember the frosty and uncomfortable response that I received on even mentioning this. With hindsight, it was probably because I had been privy to his previous behaviour at St John’s that he then wanted and thought he could bury.

So it seems like we have a clear pattern of similar events here in just two accounts. Whenever the bubble is about to burst and some unsavoury individual is about to be exposed and held account for his actions, then he is conveniently moved or re assigned somewhere else.

What is abundantly clear to me is that it was not just one individual who was responsible for moving these monsters around to avoid detection, but an administrative organisation. Someone somewhere knew exactly what kind of person Brother Kevin was/is and actively appointed him in a position of trust and authority over young boys, some as young as 6 or 7 years old. Even as 11 year old boys we were very aware of the pedophile nature of Brother Kevin. Indeed, the jokes and sniggering comments transcended through every corridor and classroom in the school. Yet not one teacher knew anything about his despicable tendencies?? Impossible. Of course they knew and were fully aware. Every single one of them. But this was the 1970’s and pedophilia behaviour and activities were a taboo subject. It simply did not exist. Sadly it did.

I hope that my account and perspective on events helps to explain things at the time. Ie coverups. I will later on send you my account at the hands of Brother Kevin. I’m working on it. I’m not shy. I will be in touch again soon