Former teacher found to have abused pupils over 20 years
A former Edinburgh teacher at an exclusive private school has been found to have carried out a shocking series of attacks on pupils over a 20 year period.
John Brownlee regularly assaulted children with various implements including a wooden bat called a clacken, a snooker cue and a golf club while he taught at the capital’s Edinburgh Academy. Brownlee, now aged 89, also choked several young boys and ordered them to sit in freezing cold baths and punished them by making them dig in a garden without the proper clothing in cold weather, all between 1967 and 1987.
Brownlee was deemed unfit to stand trial due to ill health, but an examination of facts hearing has been held at Edinburgh Sheriff Court over the past two weeks.
In his closing speech on Wednesday, fiscal depute Graeme Clark said Brownlee had carried out “unacceptable”, “unjustified” and “excessive” force when chastising his pupils.
Mr Clark said one witness had described Brownlee as “a psychopath” who enjoyed handing out the beatings, and another had been left “begging for mercy” after curling into a ball to avoid further punishment.
The court was told pupils at the school were regularly mocked by the teacher and regularly assaulted by him kicking, punching and slapping them to the head and body. Some witnesses said they were locked in a shed over a weekend, hung over a stairwell and forced to sit in cold baths and hot showers as punishment for misbehaving.
The court also heard of one horrific incident where Brownlee inserted a garden hose into the buttocks of one young boy as punishment for soiling himself.
Defence lawyer Andrew Seggie said the use of the clacken at the school had been deemed “reasonable and proportionate” at the time and that Brownlee may have used “reasonable chastisement” during some of the incidents.
In his judgement, Sheriff Ian Anderson said he found all the Crown witnesses bar one to be “credible and reliable” and found the facts proven on 32 charges including 30 of assault.
Graeme Sneddon, of the Edinburgh Academy Survivors Group, said Brownlee was “a sadistic and violent monster who took great joy” in beating schoolboys. “Justice has been done today after a wait of over 50 years for some former pupils,” he said.