Pupils suffered 'dreadful abuse' for 40 years at Edinburgh Academy, inquiry finds
Lady Smith said: “For decades, the school failed to look at itself through a realistic and critical lens.”
Pupils at boarding school Edinburgh Academy suffered “dreadful abuse” over 40 years as the school sought to protect its reputation and ignore complaints, the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry (SCAI) has found.
Lady Smith, Chair of the (SCAI), published her findings relating to the provision of residential care for children at The Edinburgh Academy.
She concludes that, for decades, pupils suffered “dreadful abuse”, while the school focused on protecting its reputation and ignored complaints.
The findings are SCAI’s seventeenth volume of findings and eighth in the boarding schools case study.
They detail more than 40 years of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse at the school.
Lady Smith said: “For decades, the school failed to look at itself through a realistic and critical lens.
“It is clear it was assumed that abuse did not and would not take place; when it did, the school could not accept that it had happened, failed to address it, and failed to recognise the risk of it continuing.
“Complacency was the order of the day.”
She added: “When complaints were made, they were either disbelieved or left unresolved. Staff chose not to notice and avoided intervention or investigation despite there being obvious signs of abuse.”
Broadcaster Nicky Campbell, who attended the school between 1966 and 1978, was among those who gave evidence to the inquiry and described being “haunted” in the middle of the night by memories of his schooldays.
Perpetrators of the abuse included teacher Hamish Dawson, who died in 2009, and former housemaster John Brownlee.
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In 2024, John Brownlee, then 89, was ruled by a court to have committed “cruel and unnatural acts” of physical and emotional abuse on pupils at the school between 1967 and 1991, but was deemed medically unfit to stand trial and was not sentenced to punishment.
One witness described experiencing and witnessing abuse which was ubiquitous in the daily lives of the children.
He said: “It was normal to groom 11-year-olds with jelly babies....and molest them in front of 20 others.
“It was normal to kick, hit, and strangle, to the point of unconsciousness, 10-year-olds. It was normal to inflict physical punishment with a plank of wood with no good reason.
“It was normal for grown men to inflict psychological belittlement on children. It was normal to allow endless cycles of bullying to go unnoticed or unchecked and the bullied becoming bullies ad infinitum.
“It was normal to completely ignore flagrant racism, sexism, homophobia. It was normal to have no safeguarding. It was normal to have no risk assessment.
“It was normal to have no abuse reporting policy or mechanism obvious to the pupils. It was normal for there to be no pastoral care, and it was normal to be somewhere where nobody, not one person, loved or genuinely cared for you.”
Lady Smith said: “None of this behaviour was ”normal”. Or acceptable. It was simply abusive.”
Edinburgh Academy has reiterated its “sincere apology” to all those affected by abuse at the school and said it is educating its current pupils in a “caring and supportive environment”.
Lady Smith said: “Hamish Dawson’s ”eccentric” behaviour in the classroom was known about, yet it was celebrated by the school. “When pornography was found in his desk, nothing was done about it.
“The various ”instruments of correction” – also known as ”instruments of flagellation” and ”instruments of torture” – which he had used to abuse pupils were auctioned on his departure from the school.”
The inquiry found the sexual abuse perpetrated at the school took a variety of forms and extended over four decades, from the 1950s to the 1980s. Some children were sexually abused by other children.
Physical abuse was normalised, with violence being an aspect of an aggressive culture which was present in the school – a culture which persisted into the 1990s, it has been concluded.
Following the introduction of co-education in the sixth form, girls were the targets of unpleasant and abusive misogyny.
Homophobia was rife and racism was prevalent even in the Prep School. It involved anti-English sentiment, and some children were abused by other pupils because of their colour or because they were Jewish, the inquiry heard.
Barry Welsh, current rector of the academy, said: “We have a commitment to facing up to the wrongs of the past which remains unwavering. “We are grateful to Lady Smith and we have played our part in her inquiry throughout.
“Her report makes for sombre reading, and reinforces the remarkable bravery shown by our former pupils who have given evidence. We reiterate our sincere apology to all those affected by any abuse that occurred at our school.
“While we cannot change the past, we can shape the future. We continue to support survivors as fully as we are able whilst also educating our current pupils in a caring and supportive environment.”
The SCAI, which aims to raise public awareness of the abuse of children in care, is considering evidence up to December 17 2014 and which is within the living memory of any person who suffered abuse.
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