A Belfast teacher who was due to appear in court on child abuse charges has been found dead, after apparently committing suicide. The charges related to alleged offences against boys in the 1980s.
The RUC said the man's body was discovered at his home in south Belfast on Monday, and that a crime was not suspected.
The Council for Catholic Maintained Schools offered sympathy to the man's family.
It said that although the teacher had been suspended, he had been supported by the council's welfare service.
The dead man's solicitor, Mr Nick Harvey, was concerned when he did not arrive for his trial yesterday morning at Downpatrick Crown Court. He alerted the police, who found the man hanged in his home.
Mr Harvey had seen him on Wednesday afternoon and he had been in good form.
"When I last saw him on Wednesday he was very upbeat, and very optimistic. It was a total shock. I just feel that the pressure and the strain of the whole thing just became too much for him," he said.
He had been "totally confident" his client would win the case. "Unfortunately the file is now closed: as far as all the parties are concerned that's the unfortunate end of the matter," he told UTV.
The dead man was a member of the National Association of Schoolmasters and Union of Women Teachers. A spokesman for the union, Mr Tom McKee, said that while children must be protected the case highlighted the great stress such allegations caused.
"I certainly would not want in any sense to frustrate the rights of people to make genuine complaints about child abuse. Children should be protected against abuse whether it's in the school or at home or at play. But what we do say to society at large is, do be aware of the nightmare that the accused goes through," he said.
"One could say, for example, that people accused of child abuse have less protection in law than people accused of murder or bombing in this country. That's the extent of the problem.
"Yes, by all means, justice must be done but we're living in a civilised country: it should be justice with compassion."