Fornethy abuse survivors will protest outside Holyrood next Wednesday as their fury grows at being blocked from a major compensation scheme.
Campaigners were devastated last month when Deputy First Minister Shona Robison, a Dundee MSP, said they would not be eligible for cash.
From 1961 onwards young girls in Glasgow were sent to Fornethy House, a residential school in Kilry, Angus, for visits of six to eight weeks.
Despite the trips being described as a holiday, the girls were repeatedly subjected to horrific sexual and physical abuse.
Survivors say they should qualify for the Scottish Government’s redress scheme, specifically set up to support historic abuse victims.
But Ms Robison said they would not be eligible since they did not go to Fornethy for long-term stays and many of their records have been destroyed.
Her evidence to Holyrood’s petitions committee angered survivors, who say they have been let down by the government.
Lead campaigner Marion Reid, who was sent to Fornethy in the 1960s, said the demonstration will be a chance for survivors to voice their dismay.
‘No empathy’
She told us: “We are here to protest and campaign against the government’s stance on redress, which the Fornethy women believe we deserve.
“Shona Robison has shown no empathy toward us. She has the power to give us closure and justice.
“We will continue to fight for justice for each and every little girl that had the misfortune to be sent to Fornethy House.”
LISTEN: Fornethy House abuse survivors on their fight for justice
More than 200 hundred women have come forward to say they were beaten by staff and force-fed when they could not finish their meals.
Campaigners say it should not matter whether young girls only went to the school on a short-term basis given the abuse they were subjected to.
Survivors also say their parents were often coerced into sending them to Fornethy residential school.
The protest comes as the demands of campaigners are put in front of Holyrood’s petitions committee again next Wednesday.
That was where Ms Robison disappointed survivors last month by denying their request for compensation while they were sitting behind her.
In a scathing assessment of the deputy first minister’s evidence, Ms Reid said: “I’ve never heard so much rubbish in all my life.”
Other women who attended the last hearing at the committee said they felt like walking out.
South Scotland Labour MSP Colin Smyth has been a strong supporter of the Fornethy campaign.
He will be in attendance when the matter is brought up at the committee again next week.
He said: “The government’s chosen way to recognise the state’s role in the abuse children in care suffered is through a redress scheme.
“So continuing with criteria that excludes Fornethy survivors from qualifying would be an appalling injustice.
“It would send a message that the abuse at Fornethy was somehow less important than other abuse, and that cannot be allowed to happen.”
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