Teacher avoids jail for assaults on pupils with special needs
A TEACHER who assaulted five vulnerable pupils was sentenced to just 150 hours of unpaid work.
Linda McCall, 66, had been found guilty of the assaults on the special needs children aged between five and seven between August 2016 and October 2017.
But following a sentencing hearing yesterday, parents hit out at the ‘inadequate’ punishment given by a sheriff.
McCall was convicted of the assaults following a trial at Selkirk Sheriff Court in May and sentence had been deferred for background reports.
At Edinburgh Sheriff Court yesterday Sheriff Roderick Flinn said some physical handling of children with special needs was necessary. But he told McCall: ‘Your conduct went beyond what was necessary or appropriate.’
Sheriff Flinn said that at the start of McCall’s career with special needs children colleagues had described her as a ‘breath of fresh air’ but added: ‘Things went wrong.’
However, he took into account the level of force in the five assaults was not extreme.
The sheriff also considered McCall’s 38 years of teaching, that she had now retired and she was a first offender by imposing a Community Payback order involving 150 hours unpaid work as an alternative to a custodial sentence for the five assaults.
He admonished her on a sixth charge of threatening or abusive behaviour.
Scottish Borders Council had initially cleared McCall of any wrongdoing in an internal investigation. But parents persisted with the complaints, resulting in action being taken against McCall.
Speaking outside court yesterday one mother said: ‘I am totally gutted. My wee lassie does not seem to matter to the court.
‘We believe first of all the council tried to cover this up when it first came up and now we have this inadequate sentence.’
Her husband added: ‘One hundred and fifty hours community service, that’s what a shoplifter gets. She should have got four years in jail. It is a disgrace.’
Marina Urie of Thompsons Solicitors, who represent the families of the children, said they were pursuing a civil claim against McCall’s employers at the time, Scottish Borders Council.
She said: ‘What sort of message does this [sentence] send out to abusers who target children and then attempt to cover up their crimes? We believe the council played a role in concealing McCall’s assaults.’
Advocate Gavin Anderson, representing McCall of Earlston, Berwickshire, pointed out that there was no evidence in any of the charges of injury to the children, physical or psychological.
Last month Scottish Borders Council new chief executive Netta Meadows announced Andrew Webster, QC, would head an independent inquiry into the local authority’s handling of the case.
Yesterday a spokesman for the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children Scotland said the tragedy of the case was compounded by the victims being ‘largely unable to verbalise the abuse they had experienced’.