Edinburgh Academy pupils suffered decades of 'dreadful abuse'

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Pupils at Edinburgh Academy suffered decades of “dreadful abuse”, a report has found.

Lady Smith, who chairs the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry (SCAI), details more than 40 years of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse at the school in her latest report.

She says the school focused on protecting its reputation and ignored complaints.

Lady Smith also names four serial perpetrators of the abuse, including two who went on to offend at other schools.

The inquiry heard claims of historical abuse against 20 teaching staff at the private school, with most of the evidence covering the years between 1954 and 1995.

Nearly 50 witnesses gave evidence, including broadcaster Nicky Campbell – who said one teacher had abused children on an “industrial scale”.

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Publishing her findings, former judge Lady Smith said the school had “failed to look at itself through a realistic and critical lens” for decades.

“It is clear it was assumed that abuse did not and would not take place,” she said.

“When it did, the school could not accept that it had happened, failed to address it, and failed to recognise the risk of it continuing. Complacency was the order of the day.

“When complaints were made, they were either disbelieved or left unresolved. Staff chose not to notice and avoided intervention or investigation despite there being obvious signs of abuse.”

The report names two long-serving members of staff as perpetrator of abuse: Hamish Dawson, a housemaster and senior school teacher, and John Brownlee, a housemaster and deputy head of the junior school.

It also singles out prep school teacher Iain Wares, who went on to abuse pupils at Fettes College and is currently awaiting extradition from South Africa; and physics teacher William Bain, who has twice been convicted of sex offences.

He began his lengthy history of abuse at Edinburgh Academy before moving on to harm children in other schools.

‘Endless cycles of bullying’

The report highlights the evidence of one pupil, who used the pseudonym Henry. He spent nine years at the school and said abuse was part of daily life.

He told the inquiry it was normal for 11-year-olds to be groomed with jelly babies, and for them to be molested in front of other pupils.

“It was normal to kick, hit, and strangle, to the point of unconsciousness, 10-year-olds. It was normal to inflict physical punishment with a plank of wood with no good reason.”

He said grown men subjected children to “psychological belittlement” and that “endless cycles of bullying” went unnoticed or unchecked.

Henry said “flagrant racism, sexism, homophobia” was ignored and there was no safeguarding.

“It was normal for there to be no pastoral care, and it was normal to be somewhere where nobody, not one person, loved or genuinely cared for you,” he added.

Iain Wares is due to be extradited to the UK

Lady Smith said: ‘None of this behaviour was “normal”. Or acceptable. It was simply abusive.'”

The report said as recently as 2001 the school’s Court of Directors focused its reputation and how it was perceived, rather than how life actually was for its pupils.

Lady Smith said Hamish Dawson’s “eccentric” classroom behaviour was known about and yet “celebrated by the school”.

Various “instruments of correction” which he had used to abuse pupils were auctioned on his departure from the school.

The report said sexual abuse extended over four decades, from the 1950s to the 1980s, and included instances of children sexually abusing other children.

Physical abuse was “normalised” and children in the Prep School were regularly beaten until corporal punishment was abolished in1988.

Following the introduction of co-education in the sixth form, girls were the targets of “unpleasant and abusive misogyny”.

The report found there was no evidence that the school gave any consideration to the obvious risks involved.

The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry was set up in October 2015 to look at the abuse of children in care in Scotland.

Lady Smith, who chairs the inquiry, has produced reports on abuse carried out at a number of schools, children’s homes and orphanages.

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