Pressure is mounting on the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry to examine fresh allegations about horrific and long-running abuse at Edinburgh Academy.
The revelations of BBC broadcaster Nicky Campbell last month about abuse he suffered at the school have prompted many ex-pupils to contact him and the journalist Alex Renton, who has been investigating the subject for many years.
It has now emerged the school employed at least 17 teachers who were abusers between 1953 and the mid-90s, and that at one point in the 1970s, nine of them were there at the same time.
Renton believes the number of victims at the private school must be in the hundreds.
BBC Radio 5 Live host Campbell, 61, attended the school in that period and fought back tears on air last month as he recalled incidents from his schooldays.
Since then the floodgates have opened, leading to ex-pupils asking why the Academy did not have a chapter of the SCAI to itself. Schools including Fettes, Gordonstoun, Loretto, Merchiston Castle and Queen Victoria School at Dunblane did have parts of the SCIA devoted to them.
One of the abuse survivors from Edinburgh Academy, who asked to remain anonymous said: “The inquiry can’t be accepted as having been thorough and comprehensive without shining the light very strongly into the Academy’s murky past.”
Renton added: “What I now realise, largely since Nicky went public and generated a huge response, is that Edinburgh Academy was the most remarkable hotspot for abuse for many years.
“What kind of state were the school and its pupils in when there were seven, eight, nine teachers abusing children all at the same time? We need to pose that question and all schools need to hear the answers.”
Campbell and Renton discussed the abuse by a teacher, who they called Edgar, known for brutality and sexual deviance, who was dismissed by the Academy after complaints. But Edgar was given a reference and began a new regime of abuse at Fettes.
Now retired and living in South Africa, he has featured prominently in the SCAI and is the subject of extradition attempts by the Crown Office so that he can be tried.
The SCAI has said there will be no additional hearings devoted to boarding schools. A spokesperson stressed anyone still to share their story could do so.
An Academy spokesman said: “We deeply regret what has happened in the past and would encourage anyone who has been the victim of abuse to contact Police Scotland.
“We are appalled by such behaviour, and we apologise wholeheartedly to those concerned.
“We would like to reiterate our reassurance the Academy has robust measures to safeguard children, with child protection absolutely core to the ethos.”
The Crown Office said it would make no comment on Edgar’s case.
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