'We were strangers until we helped bring a paedophile to justice'

In November 2019 Nicola Bannon and Lynne Darcy didn't even know each other. Six years later they believe they have helped bring a paedophile to justice.

They, along with four other women, took a case accusing their former history teacher William Lloyd-Lavery of sexual abuse.

Lloyd-Lavery, 77, of Richmond Avenue in Lisburn, was found guilty of six counts of indecent assault in January against four girls aged between 13 and 14. He was sentenced to two years in prison.

The former grammar school teacher and political press officer worked at Richmond Lodge school in Belfast during the 1970s.

Giving evidence at the trial, Nicola Bannon described her assault as being "hunted like prey" by a man for "his own sexual gratification".

She described how Lloyd-Lavery had ordered her to follow him into a small stationery room, where he lifted her up in a "vice-like grip" on the pretence of looking for a book.

"My bottom was right in his face. It was really degrading and humiliating."

She said that as she was lowered down, her skirt came up and it was then that he "put his hands inside my underwear".

Bannon was the first former pupil of Richmond Lodge to report William Lloyd-Lavery to the police.

She came forward in 2019 after seeing a news report about her former history teacher being acquitted of 13 sex offences against a boy. Those offences dated back to the 1980s.

"I went to the police because I'd always promised myself that if I ever heard that he touched another child again, that I would come forward straight away," she said.

After talking to the police, she joined a Facebook group for former pupils of Richmond Lodge and posted a message. In which she said she had spoken to child abuse experts in the PSNI and went on to ask others if they had been abused by Lloyd-Lavery to report it to the police.

By the end of that day the six women who would go on to take a case against him had contacted her.

When the case came to trial in January 2026, Lloyd-Lavery was found guilty of indecently assaulting four school girls aged between 13 and 14 between 1974 and 1979.

One of those girls was Lynne Darcy, who like Nicola Bannon has waived her right to anonymity.

During the trial she recounted an occasion where Lloyd-Lavery had summoned her to discuss a history test.

He went on to assault her in the same store room as Bannon.

In court she recounted how he had asked her a question at the time.

"Do you mind me doing this?"

Those words, she said, were ingrained in her mind.

"I lost my innocence that day because a person in authority overstepped the mark and lost all my trust."

Darcy said Lloyd-Lavery had shown no remorse during the trial.

"He didn't think he was guilty at all. Didn't have the grace to give us that.

"He thought we were fantasists, that it was the Me Too movement that we'd all got together and planned this on Facebook. We didn't even know each other before."

Both women said the guilty verdict was "fantastic". "We were all euphoric that day."

However, one thing that both women found difficult to deal with was hearing the character references that had been given to the court before the judge sentenced Lloyd-Lavery.

David Campbell, one of the founders of the Loyalist Communities Council and a former Ulster Unionist Party chair provided a reference to the court.

When asked by BBC News NI why he had done so, he said he provided "a brief, factual reference" on the basis of "my knowledge of him for over thirty years, and my fear that a custodial sentence could result in his death or a serious stroke".

Referencing Lloyd-Lavery's victims he said: "It was never my intention to add to their hurt."

When asked the same question by the Belfast Telegraph, Campbell told them he had wanted to ask the court whether there was a possibility of "a minimum sentence, rather than a maximum sentence. I mean given as the scale of the offences weren't dramatically huge".

Bannon and Darcy described Campbell's comments to the Belfast Telegraph as incredulous.

Darcy said, "I would have thought any abuse or assault towards a child is a huge matter."

While Bannon questioned how Campbell could know what kind of impact it had had on them.

"He's not a young teenage girl who's been sexually assaulted, so how would he possibly be able to make a comment?"

When BBC News NI put those remarks to Campbell, he said he had not seen what was published by the Belfast Telegraph.

But added that he absolutely rejected "any assertion that I would try and minimise any hurt or abuse inflicted on any child.

"The abuse, or attempted abuse, of any child is completely unacceptable and abhorrent."

Both Bannon and Darcey are appealing for anyone who has been a victim of any kind of abuse to come forward.

In reference to the previous acquittal, Darcy hopes that the man who brought that case has got some closure.

"He's the instigator of it all. He started it all and we finished it."

Bannon has no regrets about coming forward.

"Get that burden lifted off you, whether it's shame or anger. It's not your shame to carry. It's not your anger to carry."

If any of the issues raised in this article have affected you, details of help and support are available on the BBC Action Line.