David Nolan - Tell the Truth and Shame the Devil--Alan Morris abused me and dozens of my classmates. This is the true story of how we brought him to justice.

J ournalists are always late to the party. Always. We arrive once the riot is coming to an end, an hour after the shooting has occurred, or as the dust is settling once the bomb has gone off.

But in the case of Alan Morris and St Ambrose College, I was very much there although I really would have preferred to be somewhere else. I was there when the beatings were dished out at our Christian Brothers school in the leafy village of Hale Barns, south of Manchester. I was there when Morris used corporal punishment as a way of satisfying his sexual desires. Indeed, he did it to me as he did to so many others.

So its with thanks to Greater Manchester Police officers DI Jed Pidd, DC Barry Conway and DC Nicola Graham that I was also able to be there thirty-five years later, during Morriss historical sex-abuse trial. I was there when evidence boxes were loaded into the car on the first day of the trial; I was there when he arrived at court in fact, I earned myself a reprimand from the judge for confronting my old chemistry teacher and I was there when Alan Morris was sentenced for his crimes.

I was holding DC Grahams hand when the sentence was read out, or perhaps I should say she was holding mine. It was Nicola who first said to me, Youre an author, David, you should write a book about this case

Many other people have helped to tell this story: Helen Tonge, Ian Bradshaw and Laura Robinson from Title Role Productions; Lucy West and Ashley Derricott from Granada Television; Charlotte Crangle from the Crown Prosecution Service; Paul Malpas; Ken and Margaret Nolan; Elsie Mitchell; Mollie Whittall and Richard Scorer from Slater & Gordon and John Kennedy of the St Ambrose Old Boys Association. Thanks also to Chris Mitchell at John Blake Publishing and to Paul Woods.

Crucially, many St Ambrose pupils from different eras stepped up to tell their tale, so I give huge thanks to Mike Bishop, Richard Eames, Tim Gresty, David Lee, Scott Morgan, Simon OBrien, David Prior, Paul Quinn, Andy Rothwell, Derek Scanlan, Neil Summers and Paul Wills, along with those ex-pupils, parents and others who cannot be named: Ground Zero Boy, Nervous Boy, Doctor Boy, Doctor Dad, Gallery Boy, Police Boy, Business Boy and Investigation Woman. You know who you are but I respect the fact that you dont want other people to know.

I never thought Id have anything to do with St Ambrose after I left in 1981 and no one is more surprised than I am that this book even exists. As an adult, Id sometimes tell people how tough the school was but, like many other ex-pupils, I never really spoke about how dark things actually were. We boxed it up and hid it away.

Thanks to the ex-pupils who have come forward all those individual boxes have now been opened. Through their brave actions, other people may now learn from what happened.

Thats about as close as were likely to get in terms of something good coming out of this. The rest of it stinks

David Nolan, Manchester 2015

@davidnolanwriter

All photos, unless otherwise stated, are by Katherine

Macfarlane: www.shesnaps.com