The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Two guilty of abusing
String of sex attacks on children over four years
Two men have been found guilty of sexually abusing and assaulting boys at a Catholic-run school in the 1970s and 80s.
John Farrell, 73, and Paul Kelly, 64, were convicted of several charges against six former pupils of St Ninian’s School in Falkland, Fife, after a long-running trial at theHigh Court in Glasgow. Themenwereremandedin custody after a jury found Farrell, from Motherwell, North Lanarkshire, guilty of three counts of indecent assault and a charge of assaulting a boy with a belt. Kelly, from Plymouth, Devon, was convicted of four counts of indecent assault and three assault charges, including hitting a boy’s head off sinks at the school, whichwasrun bymembers of the Catholic religious order the Congregation of Christian Brothers.
St Ninian's housed about 45 vulnerable boys in need of care until its closure in 1983. Farrell and Kelly committed the crimes over a four-year period from 1979 against pupils aged 11 to 15. Kellywasfound guilty of having oral and anal sex with boys and on other occasions made pupils perform sexual acts on themselves, on each other, and on him.
The pair were tried on about 50 charges but the jury, returning a verdict on their eighth day of deliberations, found them not guilty, or the offence not proven, for all but 11.
The trial before Lord Matthews began in April and followed one of the biggest abuse inquiries of its kind ever carried out by Police Scotland.
Several victims attended court and cried “yes” when the judge told the men that theywould be remanded in custody ahead of sentencing next month.
The current police investigation into St Ninian's began in 2013 after officers received three separate complaints of sexual abuse from former pupils.
A total of 37 men eventually came forward with claims relating to their stay at the residential school, which took in boys who had been orphaned, neglected, or could not be looked after by their parents. Police Scotland said Kelly and Farrell – headmaster of St Ninian’s at the time of the offences – had betrayed pupils’ trust “in a despicable manner”.
“Three assault charges including hitting a boy’s head off sinks”