‘I sincerely apologise to the boys in my care who I sexually abused’

A CONVICTED paedophile who preyed on children while working at a Barnardo’s home yesterday apologised to his victims.

The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry heard he had targeted boys during his employment as a care worker.

But the man told the hearing his behaviour at Glasclune House in North Berwick, East Lothian, may have been linked to abuse he suffered while he was in care, at another Barnardo’s home – Tyneholme in Pencaitland, East Lothian.

The inquiry heard in 2004 the man, who cannot be named, pleaded guilty to sexual offences against children in his care at Glasclune House, starting when they were aged six and nine, in the 1970s. The sex offender, using the pseudonym Richard, told a hearing in Edinburgh: ‘I would like to offer my sincere apology to the two boys for the emotional scars I inflicted upon them.’

Richard, who was born in 1943, said it was possible other staff knew about inappropriate relationships he had with children.

Asked by senior inquiry counsel James Peoples, QC, ‘if there are things that might have led to a different outcome’, preventing the abuse, Richard said: ‘Yes.’ Richard left the home in 1974 and worked for other homes, not operated by Barnardo’s, until the late 1980s before having a ‘mental breakdown’.

Asked if his own abuse might have driven him to commit offences against children, Richard said: ‘Maybe the abuse that I did… reflected on that [his own abuse].’

Richard said he went into care after his mother died in 1944. He entered Tyneholme in 1950 and left in 1958.

He said he was force-fed, punished for wetting the bed by being subjected to cold baths, and smacked on the head by a member of staff.

A man also sexually abused him, which Richard said ‘emotionally… destroyed [him]’.

An anonymous witness using the name Gavin, born in 1943, told the inquiry in a statement he was placed in care at Tyneholme in 1950, where he said he was caned and force-fed.

Another witness using the name Anna gave evidence via videolink in response to allegations she abused children at Glasclune House, where she started working in 1968.

She denied claims of force-feeding and humiliating bed-wetters, saying of one of her alleged victims: ‘She was a very angry young child when she came to us, I think it was just her way of retaliating.’

The inquiry, before Lady Smith, continues.