A FORMER headmaster at the centre of a sex abuse case described claims he sexually assaulted pupils as "nonsense and complete fabrication."

Robert Francis O'Brien, 57, from Fellside Farm, Kemple End, Stonyhurst, is accused of six indecent assaults. The father of six denies assaulting four boys who were all pupils at St Mary's College and aged between 10 and 14.

The Catholic boarding school acts as a feeder school for the prestigious Stonyhurst College near Hurst Green. Two of the witnesses claim they were assaulted in the early 1970s and two in the middle of the 1990s.

O'Brien, who was suspended from his job and has since taken early retirement, was arrested and interviewed by police in the autumn of 1998.

He was interviewed on two occasions and denied all the charges. When he was first asked about a series of attacks on a pupil who was still at Stonyhurst College, he refused to make any comment.

But when police asked him about a boy who was at the school in the 1970s who claimed he was attacked on three occasions, he denied the assaults. He told police: "The claims are complete and utter nonsense. It is a complete fabrication and I deny everything.

"I am absolutely amazed by these allegations."

In a separate set of interviews, O'Brien denied he regularly abused two other former pupils and could think of no reason why they would want to make a complaint against him.

O'Brien told the police he had a close relationship with a boy who was at St Mary's Hall in the 1990s. He told the officers he took the boy under his wing because he had problems and the youngster became dependent on him.

Dr Anthony St John Daley, a former pupil at St Mary's Hall, was called to give evidence.

He told the jury at Preston Crown Court he went to O'Brien's office late one night after being sick and when he knocked on the door there was no answer for several minutes.

When the door was finally opened, he realised O'Brien was in the room with one of the boys he allegedly abused.

(Proceeding)

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.