“Essentially, in 2013 onwards, since we received directives from The Registrar for Independent Schools, in tandem with the regulators, and with a link inspector, we went through a wholescale review of important care and welfare improvements related to child protection, health and well- being and leadership for improvement. The directives included areas like safeguarding and child protection. The full audit of this is at Merchiston Castle School.”—Andrew Hunter, SCAI Witness Statement (17 November 2020)
“I was absent from the school from October 2009 to March 2010 for a major operation for bone cancer and I returned to hospital for another major operation, related to the first one, which necessitated absence from school from November 2013 to January 2014.”.—Andrew Hunter, SCAI Witness Statement (17 November 2020)
“I do not think that the school was not operating well in terms of child protection and safeguarding prior to 2015. We always thought about the interests of the pupil. However, we were inconsistent for a period of years in automatically seeking advice from regulators outside of the school and external agencies such as social services, HMIE or the Care Inspectorate. If there was an incident then why did we not automatically place such a member of staff in the staff disciplinary process? I do not really have an answer to that except that the leading team of staff, running this school, to start with, was very small. Looking back, possibly, I took too much on my plate and my P A did as well. She was my executive P A and she was also in charge of HR. At that stage, we could not afford the extra function of HR.”—Andrew Hunter, SCAI Witness Statement (17 November 2020)
The headmaster of a leading boarding school [Jonathan Anderson] has acknowledged that a failure to root out child abuse has had a “profound and damaging” impact on the lives of former pupils. Jonathan Anderson, who took over at £35,00-a-year Merchiston Castle School in Edinburgh in 2018, said yesterday that his experience of hearing and giving evidence at the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry had taught him that victims remained troubled by their experiences “for ever”.
Evidence was heard from former headmaster Andrew Hunter.
One of Scotland’s most prestigious boarding schools failed to discipline an abusive housemaster for 15 years, an inquiry heard yesterday. Andrew Hunter, who became head of Edinburgh’s Merchiston Castle School in 1998, admitted in email exchanges that he had become aware of James Rainy Brown’s actions that year.
A teacher at a £29,000 Scottish residential school has agreed to be struck off after having sex with pupils on the premises. But Scotland’s teaching watchdog has been criticised over the case after it agreed to keep the name of the teacher and school secret.
A second charge stated that: ‘During the 2014/15 session, you did on school premises, repeatedly engage in sexual intercourse with male pupils who were then aged between 17 and 18 years. ‘During February 2015, you did repeatedly send by electronic means, videos of a sexually explicit nature to a male pupil. It was added that the teacher also communicated with pupils over a Facebook group created by pupils called Organised Bullying.
Two men have been charged in connection with allegations of historical abuse at one of Scotland’s top independent schools. Police Scotland confirmed they have been carrying out inquiries into the claims at Merchiston Castle School in Edinburgh. The allegations at the all-boys school date back to the 1960s.
Two men in their sixties, believed to be ex-staff members, have been charged as a result of a police investigation relating to the exclusive Merchiston Castle school in Edinburgh. Based in Colinton in the south west of the city, Merchiston Castle is Scotland’s only all-boys independent boarding school.
