A man who claims he was sexually molested during the solitary night spent at a Catholic-run school in Belfast more than 40 years ago has lost a High Court challenge to being denied compensation.
He took legal action after the Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) Redress Board refused a payment for any alleged assault by a member of staff at St Patrick’s Training School.
But a judge dismissed the case on Wednesday after finding no evidence of procedural unfairness in the decision.
Mr Justice Humphreys ruled: “No arguable case with realistic prospects of success has been established.”
In June 1982 the man, referred to as JR 307, was remanded to the training school as a 15-year-old boy.
The juvenile justice facilities on the Glen Road in west Belfast were run by the De La Salle Order.
During the single night he spent there, JR 307 claimed he was sexually abused by a member of staff called ‘Fra’.
In October 2022 he made an application to the board set up to oversee payouts for victims of historical institutional abuse.
A response from the De La Salle Order stated that a former trainee chef in the school named Francis Smith and known as ‘Fra’ was subsequently convicted of sexual abuse.
Smith, who died in 2004, had been suspended and then resigned from St Patrick’s in 1980.
In February last year a Redress Board panel rejected JR 307′s application for compensation after finding, on the balance of probabilities, that he and Smith were not in the training school at the same time.
Lawyers for JR 307 sought a judicial review, claiming flaws in failing to hold an open hearing or provide an opportunity to scrutinise information supplied in the response under HIA Board Rules.
However, Mr Justice Humphreys rejected all grounds of challenge.