Former Christian brother Paul Dunleavy guilty of historic sex offences against schoolboys

A former Christian brother has been found guilty of historic sex offences against young schoolboys.Paul Dunleavy, 88, of Glen Road in west Belfast, was on trial for 32 counts of indecent assault.The offences were committed against nine male victims at Christian Brother schools in Belfast, Co Armagh and Co Down while he was a teacher and later principal.During the course of the trial at Belfast Crown Court the jury were directed by Judge Patrick Lynch KC to find him not guilty on one count of indecent assault.Following around five hours of deliberations over two days, the jury of six men and six women on Thursday returned unanimous verdicts on the 31 counts of indecent assault, one of attempted buggery and two counts of gross indecency.After further deliberations, the foreman told the court that they had reached majority verdicts of 11-1 on the two remaining counts of gross indecency.As the verdicts were read out, victims were seen crying in the public gallery and were comforted by family members.Dunleavy, dressed in a red coat and who listened to the proceedings through headphones, showed no emotion as the verdicts were read out.The defendant was remanded back in custody to be sentenced in October following the completion of a medical report.

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