A former teacher at a Fife residential school where an ex-pupil this week told of sexual abuse says it resembled a “prisoner of war camp”.
He was in residence at St John Bosco’s School in Aberdour for two periods, first between 1966 and 1969 and later in the 1970s.
The ex-priest – later forced to deny abuse allegations made against him – told the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry he had disagreed with the physical punishment of pupils at the facility housing young boys ordered into care.
It was an approved residential school for Catholic boys run by Salesian Fathers of St John Bosco in the village, but closed in 1982.
Boy left with welts after beating
The site is now in use as Hillside School, which has no connection, while the Salesian Fathers continue to operate schools in England and across the world.
Gerard, a pseudonym, told the inquiry on Friday of one incident in which he witnessed the headmaster wrap a strap around his hand and wrist before striking a schoolboy aged around 11 or 12.
“After seeing it once I expressed concerns,” the former priest said.
“I had seen the same boy with welts on the back of his legs. That put me off.”
He voiced his concerns to the school’s leadership but was told this was “what happened in approved schools”.
‘Dickensian’ school
“That didn’t lessen the cruelty of the action,” he added.
Gerard says the headmaster was a “genial bloke” who had a strong sense of duty.
He claims the man appeared to believe it was his “duty” to use the strap.
Describing the school as “Dickensian”, he says the culture was “punitive” in the extreme.
He added: “I couldn’t believe what I was encountering.
“It was almost like a prisoner of war camp, which was enhanced by the Nissen huts and the wire.”
As well as physical abuse, Gerard went on to tell the inquiry how he came to believe some form of sexual abuse may have been taking place.
He claims, during the early evening, young men from his dorm would go one by one to an attic space where a teacher – who cannot be named for legal reasons – slept alone.
Gerard said: “At one point there was a procession of boys. I became very concerned at one point, I was mentally clocking how long they were up there.
“I really got paranoid about it, because why would they need to go there at night?
“It was bizarre.”
He reported the movements, involving boys between 11 and 12, and some time later the teacher was removed from the school.
Pupils beat for ‘not having comb’ in their pocket
Other examples of abuse included pupils being assaulted in the morning if they did not have a comb in their pocket.
Gerard says they would be slapped across the face or the back of the head.
Lady Anne Smith, chairing the probe, asked why it was deemed important for the pupil’s to have a comb in their pocket.
He said: “That was the accepted thing. Many times, because I was in charge of the dormitories, I would try and ensure they had a comb.”
The man, who left the order and later the priesthood over reservations with the church’s teaching on contraception, also denied abuse allegations made against him.
It was claimed one incident, relayed by a former pupil, involved Gerard lying on the ground after a football match and “rubbing” his anus.
He was also told of another allegation made in an anonymous letter that he took pupils into his bed and “tried to do disgusting things” while on trips away from the school.
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