Edinburgh Academy historical abuse report, Digi Mart USA News (Edinburgh, Scotland): Pupils at Edinburgh Academy suffered decades of “dreadful abuse,” according to a report published by the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry. The report details more than 40 years of sexual, physical and emotional abuse at the private school.
Lady Smith, who chairs the inquiry, says the school focused on protecting its reputation and ignored complaints. She also names four serial perpetrators of the abuse, two of whom went on to offend at other schools.
Edinburgh Academy, which had previously apologized for “brutal and unrestrained” historical abuse, said it was committed to facing up to “the wrongs of the past.” 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.”
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,” she said. “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 perpetrators: 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.
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 molested in front of other pupils.
“It was normal to kick, hit, and strangle, to the point of unconsciousness, 10-year-olds,” Henry said. “It was normal to inflict physical punishment with a plank of wood with no good reason.” He said flagrant racism, sexism and homophobia were ignored and that 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.
Lady Smith said: “None of this behaviour was ‘normal.’ Or acceptable. It was simply abusive.”
The report said that as recently as 2001 the school’s Court of Directors focused on its reputation and how it was perceived, rather than how life actually was for its pupils. Lady Smith said Hamish Dawson’s “eccentric” classroom behavior was known about and yet “celebrated by the school.” Various “instruments of correction” he had used to abuse pupils were auctioned when he left 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 in 1988.
After co-education was introduced in the sixth form, girls were targeted by “unpleasant and abusive misogyny.” The report found no evidence that the school gave any consideration to the obvious risks involved.
The Edinburgh Academy Survivors Group welcomed the findings and thanked Lady Smith for an “accurate and thoughtful account of the events we endured as children.” The school’s rector, Barry Welsh, said it had an “unwavering” commitment to facing up to “the wrongs of the past.” He said the report made for “sombre reading” and “reinforces the remarkable bravery shown by our former pupils who have given evidence.”
“We reiterate our sincere apology to all those affected by any abuse that occurred at our school,” Welsh said. He acknowledged the school could not change the past but pledged to “shape the future,” adding: “We continue to support survivors as fully as we are able whilst also educating our current pupils in a caring and supportive environment.”
The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry was set up in October 2015 to look at the abuse of children in care in Scotland. Lady Smith has previously produced reports on abuse at a number of schools, children’s homes and orphanages.
The Edinburgh Academy report was based on evidence hearings held between November 2021 and August 2023.
