I saw teacher ‘lose it’ and beat boy to death with a strap
‘Carried this with me for 74 years’
A BOY at a children’s home died after being severely punished by a teacher who ‘lost it’ and beat him with a strap, an inquiry heard yesterday.
The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry (SCAI) heard that other pupils in the class reacted with horror as they saw the defenceless child coming under sustained attack.
A witness using the pseudonym Scottie said: ‘Quite a few of us shouted at the teacher to leave him alone; it was like a mini-revolt. We were aghast that this was happening to him.’
The boy, whose name and age were not disclosed, died from a suspected heart condition after the incident.
Scottie, 74, who was admitted to Quarriers Village in Bridge of Weir, Renfrewshire, as a baby in 1944, said the child had been ‘frail’ and ‘didn’t deserve’ the beating.
He told the statutory probe, which is investigating institutional abuse in living memory, that the teacher ‘lost it for a moment’ and that after the attack, the child died from a cardiac condition.
Scottie said he was sexually abused by three people while in the care of Quarriers between 1944 and 1959, including a member of a church group in his twenties when Scottie was aged 12 or 13.
The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, secured permission from Quarriers staff to take Scottie to the Isle of Arran for a short break, during which he woke up to find the man lying next to him naked.
When Scottie was 13, a scoutmaster repeatedly sexually molested him during a ‘dark period’ of his life, which he said was ‘frustrating’ because he ‘could not do anything’ about it and was afraid of reporting his ordeal. On another occasion, he said he was sexually abused by a member of staff at his ‘cottage’ at Quarriers.
This staff member also punished another child by sending him to school with his wet sheets after he wet the bed.
Scottie told the hearing in Edinburgh: ‘I weep for him today. He was a nice kid but he had a physical problem [meaning he was prone to bed-wetting]. He was beaten mercilessly [by the staff member overseeing the ‘cottage’].’
Scottie said the abuse of the child, who was two years younger than him, was a ‘con- tinual thing’, adding: ‘They had to teach him a lesson to shame him, scare him.’
Scottie said another former resident later told him he could remember the screams from the cottage because of the abuse he said was meted out to its 20 or so residents.
Boys were regularly branded ‘imbeciles’, including a child who stuttered during Bible readings and was strapped ‘many times’.
Children were forced to carry out chores and a boy of around 12 or 13 was once injured when he climbed onto a vat of hot soup while cleaning above a stove unsupervised – and fell in the liquid, scalding his feet.
Scottie said he had never been able to confide in his family about the abuse, adding: ‘This is something I have carried with me for 74 years.’
Another witness, born in 1942 and using the pseudonym Matt, was seven when he was admitted to Quarriers Village, where he spent around eight years. He ran away and was taken to a police station where he was collected by a member of staff from the home – who forced him to run all the way home and stand in a corner of the living room all night, without food.
Matt said he was injured by a device used to deter bedwetters, which attached rubber mattress sheets to the mains supply, activating an alarm when urinated on.
Matt said: ‘It took large chunks out of my backside.’
A witness using the name Finlay, who was admitted in 1949, said he would be woken at 10pm and forced to take ice-cold baths, in a bid to stop him wetting the bed. He said he was often ‘black and blue’, adding he was a ‘happy-golucky child’ who became ‘frightened’ after beatings.
The inquiry, before Lady Smith, continues.