Ampleforth College: Monk says he had ‘consensual’ relationship with teenager at boarding school

Michael James Callaghan, known as Father James, is on trial for alleged sexual offences against two pupils while he was a teacher and housemaster at Ampleforth College in North Yorkshire.

Callaghan, 71, is alleged to have repeatedly indecently assaulted one boy over three years in the 1990s, and to have sexually assaulted a 17-year-old boy in 2013 by squeezing his bottom during a hug.

Teesside Crown Court heard the first complainant told police the “sexual bit” of their relationship had started when he was under 16, with Callaghan kissing him.

He said Callaghan would ask to meet him after Mass on Saturday evenings at different locations, including guest rooms, and sometimes a room at the school that was used for homeless people.

The complainant said in his police interview that Callaghan would “take on the role of a boy I had a crush on” and they would kiss and simulate sex, telling officers he “hated the sexual bit of it” and realised as an adult it “wasn’t right”.

Giving evidence on Wednesday, Callaghan said he and the complainant would engage in “roleplay” when they met, and he would pretend to be another boy at the school as they hugged and kissed.

He said he had kissed the boy on the neck, and told the court there may have been “rubbing outside the trousers of genitals for a few seconds”.

He said they would sometimes “play fight,” but asked whether they had simulated sex, he told the court: “I don’t believe it. I don’t remember it in the slightest.”

Callaghan said he might have pretended to have a heart attack as a joke, but denied the complainant’s claim that he had made him perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on him.

Asked by his barrister David Lamb KC if the complainant had ever shown any reluctance in these meetings, Callaghan said: “Never. Not by what he said nor by his demeanour.”

The defendant said any sexual contact only started when the boy was “about 17” and they stayed in touch after he left the school.

He told the court: “By the time he was in sixth form I realised there was certainly an element of attraction that had entered my perception of him.”

Callaghan, who described himself as bisexual, denied being in love with the complainant or seeing him as his boyfriend, saying he was “a good close friend”.

The court heard he took the defendant out on trips in his car, paying for lunches for the two of them and giving him a cigarette every day at school.

Asked if he used cigarettes to persuade the complainant to have sexual contact with him, Callaghan said: “No. Never, ever.”

Prosecutor Mark McKone KC asked: “Do you accept that the shopping trips and pub lunches and cigarettes might have made him feel obliged to go along with your sexual contact?”

Callaghan replied: “Certainly not, no, there wasn’t even a flavour of that.”

He added: “Whatever happened was spontaneous. There was no grooming at all.”

Opening the case to jurors earlier in the week, Mr McKone said: “Whatever (the complainant’s) age, this was not true consent – this was not consent given freely by someone who had a real choice.”

Asked about the alleged sexual assault on the second complainant, Callaghan said he hugged him but did not squeeze his bottom.

Callaghan is charged with 12 counts of indecently assaulting the first complainant, with four alleged to have happened when he was under 16, and one count of sexual assault on the second complainant.

Callaghan, of Moortown, Leeds, denies the charges and the trial continues.