A FORMER headmaster has told a court how being accused of abusing his pupils destroyed his professional and private life.

Robert Francis O'Brien is alleged to have committed six indecent assaults on four boys while he was head of the leading Catholic school St Mary's Hall but denies all the charges.

The Hurst Green preparatory acts as feeder school for the prestigious Stonyhurst College.

The alleged victims of the attacks were all pupils of O'Brien's and aged between ten and 13. The prosecution claims two boys were assaulted in the 1970s and two in the 1990s.

The 57-year-old father-of-five, of Kemple End, Stonyhurst, was asked why he refused to discuss charges relating to one of the boys when he was first interviewed by police.

He said: "This was the most traumatic experience of my life. I had been taken out of the school after 30 years working and living there.

"My life was in ruins and I was focusing on the accusations of the pupil in the 1970s. When I was told about the other boy I couldn't believe it.

"I was in a total state of shock. I didn't feel able to talk coherently about anything and was advised not to say anything."

Elizabeth Nicholls, prosecuting, claimed O'Brien was a strong character who dominated the staff and pupils at St Mary's Hall and held a lot of power at Stonyhurst.

The court heard how O'Brien was devastated when he was told he had been accused of abusing a former pupil and would be suspended from his job. He was later asked to take early retirement.

The first person he told was a boy who would later claim he was a victim of the teacher.

Asked whether he thought it was appropriate to tell a 15-year-old boy what had happened, O'Brien replied: "I thought it was absolutely appropriate.

"This was a person who relied on me in so many different situations, I trusted him not to tell anyone.

"At the time he happened to be there, he had come to see me. If he had not been there then I would not have told him."

O'Brien was also quizzed about an occasion a boy went missing from his dormitory late at night. Several teachers searched the school and when they phoned the headmaster in his study he suggested they checked the infirmary.

The teachers later discovered the missing boy was with O'Brien all the time, the court was told.

The defendant claimed the boy, who is one of the alleged victims, had come to see him in a distressed state following a phone call with his parents.

Judge Brian Duckworth said: "You mean to say you sent your colleagues on a wild goose chase, why did you do that?"

O'Brien replied: "It was wrong but nothing should be read into it, I was acting on instinct."

(Proceeding)

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