“It’s not the end of the story but a real turning point,” said Giles Moffatt after 14 gruelling days of evidence detailing the physical, sexual and psychological abuse he and generations of boys endured at Edinburgh academy, one of Scotland’s most prestigious private schools.
Moffatt, 51, is co-founder of the survivors’ group of about 50 middle-aged men – including the broadcaster Nicky Campbell – who wept, embraced and applauded one another as they described hundreds of stomach-turning incidents of individual abuse to the long-running Scottish child abuse inquiry: a 14-year-old beaten “like a rag doll” until he passed out, eight-year-old boys locked in a garden shed over a weekend for a minor infraction, a six-year-old with a garden hose pushed into his anus as a punishment for bed wetting.
“The most important thing is that we’ve put on the record what happened,” said Moffatt, who attended the school in the 1980s. “The abuse is one thing, but it’s the injustice that hurts you more: the fact it was denied, that even my own parents didn’t believe me.”
Making closing submissions for the survivors group on Wednesday, Alan McLean KC said the men had described a culture of violence, fear, silence and shame, where severe beatings, voyeurism and sexual assaults were so normalised that pupils were left with “no compass”.
That normalisation lasted well into adulthood, said Sam, 61, another member of the group, who explained that the past fortnight had enabled him to grasp “the entirety of what we went through as little boys, something we never discussed, or laughed off, for the last 50 years”.
Closing for the inquiry, lead counsel Andrew Brown KC commended the work of journalist Alex Renton, whose BBC Radio 4 documentary series In Dark Corners about abuse in Britain’s elite private schools prompted Campbell to reveal his own abuse. It resulted in a flood of other former pupils coming forward and encouraging the inquiry to take detailed evidence on the school.
Before the hearings Moffatt described Edinburgh academy in those days as “a cesspit of sadism and paedophilia”, but the day school with boarding, which prized academic and sporting excellence, was also a place where the Edinburgh establishment sent their children in preparation for a life of privilege and influence.
Testimony revealed that, hiding in plain sight, were more than 20 teachers who were serial abusers.
In evidence last week, Campbell vented his fury that one of his alleged abusers, Iain Wares, remains at liberty in South Africa, where the 83-year-old is fighting extradition to face charges relating to his time teaching at the academy and also at Fettes College during the 60s and 70s.
The inquiry also heard shocking evidence that, despite diagnosing Wares as a “pederast” – a term once used to describe a man who has a sexual interest in boys – a senior Edinburgh psychiatrist intervened to prevent him being sacked by Fettes over abuse allegations.
Confirming that an appeal against his extradition will be heard in South Africa on 27 October, Dorothy Bain, the lord advocate, assured the inquiry “significant efforts” were being made to bring Wares to justice, admitting “at times the decisions and actions of the Crown Office have disappointed [the survivors] and I understand that”.
On the final day, the inquiry also heard an apology from Fettes college, admitting the school knew that Wares had abused pupils and stating it was “truly sorry” it allowed him to return to teaching.
During evidence, it became clear that for those who witnessed the abuse of their fellow pupils it was as traumatic as being abused themselves, especially when teachers forced them to participate.
Another abuser, Hamish Dawson, who died in 2009 and was notorious for his arbitrary and sadistic punishments, made other boys choose which “instrument of correction” to use and help him hold down his victims.
The atmosphere of anticipated violence and dreaded touching also turned the children against one another as they acted out their distress. “We were made feral” was a phrase a number of survivors used.
McLean also set out how boys, parents and the occasional junior staff member had been “threatened, menaced, suppressed” when they attempted to raise the alarm.
And just as chilling was the wider culture of complicity the evidence exposed – when the internationally acclaimed actor Iain Glen spoke out about his abuse in 2002, Campbell said “the wrath of Morningside and Muirfield and Murrayfield [wealthy Edinburgh suburbs] rained down on his head with biblical fury because he’d broken the code, the Edinburgh omertà.”
When speaking about the academy’s governor, who always held sway in Edinburgh, Moffatt said they were “senior professionals who you’d expect to be protecting children, and they did nothing – that’s the arrogance of the Edinburgh establishment.”
In closing, Police Scotland said it was investigating new reports of abuse from survivors, after it emerged that a former deputy head, 88-year-old John Brownlee, will face charges, with an initial hearing expected in October.
McLean said survivors had varying views on the future of Edinburgh academy: some wanted to see it shut down, others favour a permanent memorial on site, more broadly some advocate mandatory reporting of suspected abuse with criminal sanctions.
Edinburgh academy also made a lengthy statement of acknowledgment and apology, accepting the direct and indirect consequences of the abuse including the struggles with relationships and addiction of “grown men deeply damaged as children”. A recognition of the abuse will form part of its bi-centennial celebrations next year.
