I was sent 4,200 miles away to be beaten and abused in a living hell

A BOY shipped to Canada under a child migrant programme endured four years of ‘living hell’, an inquiry heard yesterday.

Roddy Mackay, who waived his right to anonymity, left Liverpool for Canada in 1941 after his parents separated.

He was born in Edinburgh and had been in care in Fife then Birmingham before his journey. When he arrived at Fairbridge Farm School orphanage in Vancouver Island, British Columbia, he was whipped by his ‘housemother’, who called him a ‘guttersnipe’ and locked him in a basement.

Former soldier Mr Mackay, 84, who later moved to the US, told the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry (SCAI): ‘From the time you got up you had chores and she stood over you – like a drill sergeant major, only worse.’

He said a medical exam described him as suitable to work as a labourer – aged six.

Mr Mackay told of routine beatings, saying he was stripped and hit with a belt.

He told the Edinburgh hearing: ‘We went through white gates, which a schoolmate described as the pearly gates of Hell.

‘[My housemother] made my life a living hell. She took the shirt off our back and took a belt [to us], locked us in the basement. She was more than strict.

‘I was praying with all my heart for God to do something. Whenever she lost her temper, we didn’t know what we were going to get. I would plead, “Please stop, mom”.

The SCAI is investigating historical abuse of children in care, including those shipped abroad as part of forced migration schemes. It is thought that as many as 130,000 British children were sent away between the 1940s and 1970s.

Mr Mackay described being confined to a small area and said children were fed porridge containing worms. He said older children would bully younger ones and that he was nearly sexually assaulted by a teenage boy but another child walked into the room before anything happened.

Mr Mackay also said a sexual abuser who had worked at the orphanage was allowed to return after prison and went on to assault more children.

Mr Mackay, who left the orphanage at 17 and joined the Army, said being separated from his family had the most lasting effect on him.

He added: ‘I was in my late 60s before I was able to obtain records that could have assisted me in reconnecting with my brothers.

‘One of the things I get bitter, bitter feelings about is the fact they had these records.’

The inquiry continues.