A report into the exclusive Merchiston Castle School has concluded that for 60 years, “abusers were protected by tradition”. Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry chairwoman Lady Smith has published her findings on the provision of residential care at the Edinburgh boarding school, concluding that over almost six decades, there was a “more or less continuous line of indecency” from two named perpetrators.
Abuse at a boarding school for boys in Edinburgh was “normalised for generations”, the chair of the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry has said. Lady Smith published her findings on Wednesday relating to the provision of residential care for children at Merchiston Castle School in Edinburgh.
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 TOTAL of 30 Scottish primary schools have been named by a whistle-blowing website which is dedicated to exposing “rape culture” in education. Everyone’s Invited is a website which aims to be a safe place for survivors to share their stories in their own words completely anonymously. It has had thousands of entries from young people as they told their stories about times they endured sexual assault and harassment at school.
The head of a boys-only independent boarding school has told an inquiry that concerns of a “predatory culture” are an issue for all schools. Jonathan Anderson, headmaster at Merchiston Castle School in Edinburgh, said it was “not fair” to single out boys-only schools over the issue. Giving evidence at the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry, Anderson said his school had done a “harrowing” review of files and accepted there may have been abuse between 1930, when the school moved to Colinton, and 2014.
