Cruelty claims at disabled school

Claims concern Fleming Fulton school in Belfast

Police have received a number of complaints concerning the treatment of children with disabilities by some former staff at a Belfast school.

Officers are already investigating allegations of cruelty to children at Fleming Fulton school between 1977 and 1988 and more than 60 statements have been taken.

The allegations concern the treatment of children who lived in residential chalets at the south Belfast school.

A report on the allegations has been forwarded to the Director of Public Prosecutions who will decide if the matter should go to court.

He was sitting tied in his chair crying his eyes out

Pupil's mother

A number of former residents and their relatives told the BBC they were punished for incontinence or not eating their meals.

Ray Hamilton from Kilkeel, who suffers from cerebral palsy, went to Fleming Fulton when he was six-years-old and left when he was 19.

His mother, Rita, said he loved the school but had some trouble in connection with the chalets where he lived.

"Ray was closed in a room when we went to visit him at one stage," she said.

"We asked the staff where he was and they told us that Ray had been a very naughty boy and he was in a room down the corridor.

"We went down with the staff and he was sitting tied in his chair crying his eyes out and we were just mortified."

Mrs Hamilton said she believed Ray, who was aged about seven at that stage, had been crying in the darkened room for at least half an hour.

Clothing

Robert Sweeney, who suffers from brittle bone disease, left Fleming Fulton when he was 13.

He said on one occasion after he had been incontinent was made to wash his own and other people's underwear.

Former school pupil Robert Sweeney

"I was made to sit in a room with a big bucket of warm water, made to sit and wash whatever was steeping in the sink with my hands, no gloves."

Robert said on one occasion he was made to sit at the dinner table wearing a nappy, a T shirt and socks.

"I was told there was no other clothing available for me," he said.

"It was pretty humiliating because I was 12 and that was embarrassing and everyone was staring."

A spokesman for Belfast Education and Library Board said it had "all matters pertaining to developments concerning Fleming Fulton school under active and serious consideration".