TWO VICTIMS OF a paedophile former teacher and principal have told how they have never been able to get over the abuse they suffered.

Paul Dunleavy, 89, a former Christian Brother, was sentenced at Belfast Crown Court yesterday on 36 charges of historical sex offences dating from 1964 to 1991 while he worked at four schools in Northern Ireland.

One of the victims from Belfast told the PA news agency how the abuse started at school when he was just five years old.

The charges included indecent assault and gross indecency with or towards a child. The offences were committed between 1964 and 1991 while Dunleavy worked at four schools in Belfast, Newry and Armagh.

He is already serving a prison sentence having been convicted previously on two separate occasions of sexual offences against children in his care.

Those two cases involved nine other victims and included 36 other offences, meaning Dunleavy has now been convicted of a total of 72 offences involving 18 victims.

Passing sentence, Crown Court judge Patrick Lynch KC said the prison term would commence at the end of his current sentence in May 2026.

Judge Lynch said Dunleavy, who the court heard has a life expectancy of around four years, felt he could conduct his predatory behaviour with impunity.

The victims were aged between seven and 14 at the time. Dunleavy briefly bowed his head in the dock of Belfast Crown Court as sentence was passed yesterday afternoon.

One victim said that Dunleavy was waiting for him to arrive when he arrived at school and “always wanted to get kids into the car, sat you on his knee. That’s how it started”.

“When you were five or six, you didn’t know what is right or wrong. You didn’t talk to anybody about it. It went on for a few years,” he told the PA news agency.  “Not only did it happen to me, but I witnessed it happening to other young boys.”

“As I started to get older I started to realise things were wrong.”

“People say time is a healer but this never goes away. There is always something to remind you. You can be watching TV and something will be a trigger. You are always fighting the battle in your head, there is no peace.”

The victim came forward to police after seeing a report on TV about other abuse carried out by Dunleavy. The man told of his emotions after seeing Dunleavy in person for the first time for decades during his trial at Belfast Crown Court.

He said: “I just wanted to kill him, I still want to. There was no sign of remorse. I don’t want an apology from him, but if he would just admit what he has done, that would be something.”

Another victim from Co Down said Dunleavy began to abuse him in the late 1960s at primary school. He said it had a devastating impact on his life.

He said: “I have tried in the past to kill myself. I have done a lot of self-harming. I started drinking as a child. All I wanted to do was get drunk to numb the pain. I didn’t care if I lived or died.”

The man said it took him decades to tell police about what had happened to him. He then had to face his abuser in court.

He said: “I didn’t recognise him in court. He was an old man, he didn’t have any power over me any longer. He looked old, frail. It was nerve-wracking having to give evidence. He wouldn’t admit what he had done.

“I live with guilt because maybe if I had said something sooner, some of these people wouldn’t have had to go through what they did.”

He added: “You try to put it out of your head, but it always comes back. There is not a day goes past that you don’t hear something which triggers it.

“There are a lot more victims out there. The reason I came forward is because I think there are hundreds more.”