Alleged assault by former teacher felt like being hunted, court hears

A woman who claims that she was sexually assaulted by her teacher in the 1970s has described the ordeal as being "hunted like prey" at school by a male teacher for "his own sexual gratification".

The complainant was giving evidence during the third day of the trial of a former teacher charged with indecently assaulting six teenage girls at Richmond Lodge School in south Belfast.

William Lloyd-Lavery of Richmond Avenue in Lisburn is accused of nine counts of indecent assault and two further counts of gross indecency between 1974 and 1979.

He denies the charges.

The 77-year-old was a history teacher at the school at the time of the alleged offences.

During evidence, a 50-minute ABE interview (achieving best evidence) was played to the jury. ABE interviews are police-recorded video interviews with a complainant.

The woman gave an account of how Lloyd-Lavery had told her to help him look for a history book and then escorted her around the school from room to room.

She described meeting him in the corridor after she had been at orchestra practice.

She said "he looked me directly in the eye and said I have lost a history book and you are going to help me find it."

She said that after being brought to a library, a study room and a large stationery room, she was sexually assaulted in a small stationery cupboard.

During the interview, she said that she had followed Lloyd-Lavery to the library and that he dragged a chair over to the shelves. "He told me to stand on the chair and look for the book".

Lloyd-Lavery, she said, "was looking on the lower shelves". She added that: "I was concentrating on keeping one hand on the side of my skirt" so that he couldn't see up it.

She said that he then said "the book's not here" and told her they would try to search in another room and that he then brought her to a small study room and told her again to stand on a chair to look.

She said when she turned around he "was blatantly and obviously looking up my skirt" and smirked at her and said "the book's not here but you are coming with me to find it".

Warning: People might find details in this report distressing

He then brought her to a large stationery room.

She said she blurted out "your book is not here". He responded that there "was one more place to look".

He then allegedly took her to a small stationery cupboard. It is here that she says she was sexually assaulted.

He told her as there was no chair to stand on, he would have to lift her up to look for the book.

She said he lifted me "like a vice grips around my thighs". "The middle of my thighs were at his chest".

She described it as "undignified and degrading".

She said he asked her if the book was there. She responded, no.

She went on to say that he then dropped her through his arms and her skirt went up.

While still several inches off the floor, she says he held her in his left arm and then put his right hand on her underwear and "pushed his fingers inside and touched my genitals."

He then, she said, "dropped me to the floor".

She said a teacher opened the door and shouted at Lloyd-Lavery and closed it again.

She said she then ran out.

During the interview, she told the detective that she had gone to the toilets and skipped a lesson which was something that she had never done before.

She said her mother had picked her up from school and that she had told her what happened.

The next day, both her mother and father went to the school and told a member of staff what had happened. She said that as far as she was aware, "nothing happened".

During cross examination, the woman was asked by the senior counsel if the assault had actually happened.

In response the woman said, "I was hunted like prey through my own school by a male teacher for his own sexual gratification. I was assaulted and he betrayed me."

The senior counsel went on to dispute the fact that she had ever been taught by Lloyd-Lavery. She said she had.

The prosecution then produced a school report that she said had been signed by him.

The case continues.

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