A PENSIONER is demanding an apology from the convent he claims ruined his life by allowing him to be abused as a child.

William Dyer was sent from his family home in Ongar to Pontville RC Special School in Lancashire in 1952, after turning to truancy and petty crime as a boy.

The Chigwell-based Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary ran the school where Mr Dyer spent three years, suffering what he claims was a catalogue of abuse from three members of staff, including rapes in dormitories and a boiler room.

On one occasion he says he was left with a broken leg after a nun beat him for laughing out loud during evening prayers.

"It's been with me all my life. They were so aggressive," he said.

"I wondered, did I have a sign around my neck saying 'help yourself'."

Now 73, and living in Clacton-on-Sea, Mr Dyer said the abuse left him suffering depression, anxiety and panic attacks and led to the breakdown of relationships with his ex-wives and children.

"I feel I have let them down because I have never trusted them,” he said.

“That trust was taken from me.

"I couldn't sustain a job. All the things that I wanted to do were nice things like looking after people, taking up football, doing the normal things a chap wants to do.

"It's been destroyed. It's got taken away from me.”

He eventually decided to take action in 2009, reporting the allegations to Essex Police, but the case was closed in early 2010 because all the accused are now dead.

Pontville School was taken over by a private provider in 2001 and now has no link to the previous administration.

But Mr Dyer wants an acknowledgement from the convent in Chigwell Road and to find others who went through the same experience.

"I want them to say exactly what's gone on. No doubt other boys were sexually abused," he said.

"I want them to say sorry.”

Sister Catherine McLaughlin at the convent said the claim was currently being investigated by their solicitors.

She added: "The Sisters take these and any complaints made by anyone who was ever in their care seriously and seek to ensure that they learn from such complaints so as to continue to improve their work with children and young people."

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