This article is from page 9 of the 2013-08-27 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 9 JPG
THE South African man who claimed he was abused by a Christian Brother, who was later named as Clarecastle native Brother Gerard Dillon, has claimed he was “very badly used” by RTÉ in its controversial ‘Mission to Prey’ documentary.
Tyrone Selmon had told the documentary that was aired in 2011 that he was abused at the Christian Brothers College in Pretoria, but now two years later has blasted RTÉ over their decision to attribute that abuse to Brother Dillon.
“The interview I gave the Irish TV programme was never supposed to be a direct accusation but a first hand account of what I experienced,” he said.
“I have been very badly used and have had to endure countless strangers contacting me from numerous newspapers and TV programmes around the world expecting that they have a right to my life.
“I must make it very clear that I have never been shown the programme, have never seen how it was edited or what was said. I stand by my words, however find it horrid that names were used as it was my understanding that this would not be the case,” he added.
Brother Dillon’s family have vehe- mently denied that any abuse took place and as part of their defence of the Clarecastle born brother who died in 2005 they have assembled the testimony of 17 other men who were in the dormitory in the school at the same time as Mr Selmon.
“We had two meetings with RTÉ last year and we gave them a 96page document of testimonies from ex-students all supporting Br Gerard Dillon and pointed out that we could find not one person to back up these claims,” said Brother Dillon’s niece, Marian Dillon.
“They say they have people to back up the claims but when we asked them for the evidence they refused, saying they had journalist privilege.
“If Br Gerard was still alive they [RTÉ] would have to defend this in the High Court but we can’t even get basic information from them. We are left in limbo because of their unnamed sources,” she said.
“What they [RTÉ] did was one of the worst things you could do to a family. RTÉ have forgotten it. They have forgotten us and moved on but we can never move on. We are still banging on doors.
“On the family’s side, we will not stop. We want the truth. RTÉ dragged the entire family into this and we are still living with this atrocious untruth. However, the support we have received is unbelievable from all over Ireland and South Africa and we will continue,” she said.
“RTÉ has recently received correspondence on behalf of the family of Br Dillon and will be responding to them in due course. RTÉ’s position on the matter has not changed,” and RTÉ spokesperson said.