Leading school’s brutal brawls in the ‘magic circle’
Teachers KNEW of pupil fights, probe told
PUPILS at a top military boarding school staged fights at a ‘magic circle’ in the woods in full knowledge of teachers, an inquiry heard yesterday.
Pupils at Queen Victoria School in Dunblane, Perthshire, would regularly arrange brawls, the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry was told.
Giving evidence yesterday, a man named only as Clifton revealed such fights were commonplace in the late 1980s and early 1990s at the boarding school, which caters for the children of Armed Forces personnel.
He said that the area in the woods was used often enough to prevent the undergrowth from growing back.
Clifton told the hearing in Edinburgh: ‘We had this clearing in the woods called the magic circle. If a fight was organised then you knew it was going to happen.’
When he was asked by Andrew Brown, QC, how often the fights took place, he replied: ‘Never had an opportunity for nature to reclaim the land. I only went once but in terms of how frequent I could not say.’
Mr Brown then asked if he thought the teachers might have known about the fights. Clifton said: ‘We weren’t astute enough to keep this secret.’
The boys had a ‘collective conscience’ when it came to not telling on each other, Clifton told Lady Smith, who is chairing the inquiry. ‘It was the school mentality, boys don’t grass,’ he said.
Former teacher Glen Harrison also gave evidence at the hearing and claimed he tried to stop abuse at the school.
He said a younger pupil named Jamie told him of how older boys ‘would touch him under the quilt’. Mr Harrison, who had only been teaching at the school for six months in 1989 before being made housemaster, also mentioned how pupils were taken on undocumented school trips.
The inquiry heard that boys would be taken away on trips before returning with money, which they would ask Mr Harrison to put in their banks.
Several witnesses at the inquiry alleged another teacher put his hand under their shorts and underwear. One witness known only as James said: ‘We would barricade the door with a bench to stop him getting into the showers.
‘Still somehow he was allowed to teach our swimming lessons. He would tell us to leave our towels and dry ourselves using our hands.’
Another witness recalled how during classes, the teacher would appear to molest children.
He added: ‘When we came back from October break, the classroom had changed.’
He said the teacher would call pupils up to his desk and touch them inappropriately. The witness added: ‘He might pretend to be tickling your armpit.’
On Wednesday, a witness known only as Joe told how the teacher would allegedly sit on his bed before sometimes touching him sexually.
He is alleged to have later written Joe a postcard during the holidays in which he insisted the youngster would always be welcome at his flat, as well as thanking his mother for knitting him a sweater.
The inquiry is investigating the abuse of children in care, including those who were residents at boarding schools.
The outcome of Lady Smith’s report could see recommendations made to Scottish Government ministers about how best to protect children in future, through changes to practices, policies and the law.
The hearing into Queen Victoria School continues today.