A former pupil at a Dundee girls’ school has told how she was raped by a member of staff when she was teenager.

Lynn, who attended Balgay Approved School for Girls in the early 1960s, spoke about her torment for the first time as she gave evidence at the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry.

She was sent to Balgay after her mother accused her of stealing money.

It became an approved school – a residential institution for young offenders – in 1933 and housed scores of girls at a time.

‘Just forget about it’

Lynn, a pseudonym, said she loved her initial spell there.

She says when she was sent back to her hometown in the central belt, she actively tried to return to Dundee.

Lynn was soon back at Balgay after playing truant from school.

And she says during her second time at the Dundee establishment she was raped by a male staff member.

Lynn, around 15 at the time, said “He asked me if I wanted to come down to to his flat and I never thought anything of it.

“But he took me through to the bedroom, took my clothes off, and raped me.

“He was maybe 25 to 30 years old and he was married. I ran down the stairs and he ran after me.

“He said something along the lines of just forget about it and we went back to the school.”

‘I never reported what happened until now’

Lynn told the inquiry the same staff member raped her on two occasions at Balgay.

She added: “I never reported what happened until now really.

“I just wanted to get something off my chest.”

Balgay closed its doors in 1983 and the building was subsequently occupied by the independent Parkview School, which provided residential care to boys with behavioural difficulties.

Parkview closed in 2009 and the buildings were converted into residential use four years later.

The inquiry also heard from Petrie, another pseudonym, who detailed the abuse they suffered at the Burnside Assessment Centre on Harestane Road in Dundee.

They had previously spent time in a children’s home in Perthshire after being taken into care aged four before being sent to Burnside in the early 1980s.

Giving evidence behind a screen, Petrie told the inquiry they were hospitalised during their time at Burnside after being raped by staff members.

The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry, on day seven of the Dundee phase, was established in 2015 to look into the cases of abuse of children in care in Scotland.