Boarding school beast ‘Brother Peter’ jailed
PERVERT PREYED ON YOUNG BOYS
A FORMER teacher at a Catholic boarding school was yesterday jailed for a catalogue of sex abuse against young boys.
Peter Toner, 61, groomed and sexually abused five pupils at the former St Columba’s College in Largs, Ayrshire, in the early 80s.
The paedophile – known as Brother Peter – preyed on his young victims, even telling one, “I love you like a son” as he sexually abused him.
His abuse became so well known another teacher locked him in his room at night to stop him going near boys.
Yesterday, at the High Court in Glasgow, Judge Johanna Johnston jailed Toner for 10 years.
She told him: “You were convicted of a number of serious sexual offences against five young boys aged between eight and 11. These boys were in your care as pupils.
“You were a teacher and sometimes had unfettered control of these boys. Your predatory sex offending on these boys was a dreadful breach of trust.
“You wrecked the lives of these young boys.
“You present a danger of causing serious sexual harm to children.”
Judge Johnston ordered Toner to be monitored for two years after his release from prison and placed him on the sex offenders’ register.
Toner, from Glasgow, was a housemaster at the former college. He BY WILMA RILEY groomed boys at the school run by the Catholic Marist Brothers. He was snared after victims bravely reported their ordeals to police.
The pervert moaned he was “heartbroken” by the accusations.
He continues to deny sexually abusing his victims.
Toner was convicted of six sex abuse charges and a further charge of assaulting a boy victim with a wooden duster.
He is already behind bars for preying on two boys when he worked at another boarding school in Old Windsor, Berkshire, in the 80s, although he is appealing that sentence.
The former pupils kept quiet for almost 40 years.
One admitted in court he was “embarrassed” by what happened.
But the victims told prosecutor Bernard Ablett how they had suffered at Toner’s hands.
One told how he initially searched for his abuser online to see if he was still alive and reported him to the police.
He said: “I had kept it hidden all this time. I wanted it all to come out.”
The victim, now 46, said: “I was an innocent child who was sexually abused at the hands of that animal – that is the truth.”
Another victim, now 47, recalled: “He once told me he loved me like a son.”