HOUSE OF HORRORS
Probe over abuse claims at girls’ school 40 former pupils reveal torment
Police are investigating claims of sexual abuse at a residential school for sick girls.
Children as young as five were sent to Fornethy House. But dozens of victims claim the facility’s regime was “beyond cruel”.
Former pupils at a residential school for sick girls claim they were subjected to sexual and physical abuse that left them permanently injured and suicidal.
Victims say they were regularly attacked by staff members at remote Fornethy House after being told they were going to a holiday camp.
Detectives are investigating allegations of sexual and physical assaults at the girls- only facility which was run by Glasgow’s local authority in Kilry, Angus.
Poorly youngsters from workingclass families were taken to the school 90 miles from the city for “convalescent” breaks after it opened in 1961.
However member sofa newly-formed survivors group say they were routinely beaten and degraded by workers when they arrived.
Some were as young as five when they were taken to the sit e which ha s been described as “beyond cruel”.
Marion Reid helped set up Fornethy House Residential School Survivors last month and has already been contacted by 40 ex-pupils – aged in their 40s and 60s – who also say they were force-fed, made to eat vomit and ordered to walk around naked.
The 63-year- old was sent to the school with her older sister, who was considered underweight. Marion was told she was there to keep her sibling company.
She claims she was frequently punched and slapped on the face by adult employees almost from the moment she arrived.
Marion said the abuse she suffered during her six-week stay in 1964 has blighted her life and contributed to several suicide attempts. She f irst tried to take her own life when she was in her 20s.
She said: “I was just seven when I was sent there with my sister.
“She was thought to be suffering from malnutrition and I was there to keep her company.
“But we barely saw each other until we got back home. I was punched and slapped on the face and called a cry baby. I didn’t understand what was happening, I just prayed for it to end. “We want answers as to why this was allowed to happen to young, innocent children.”
Fornethy House, built in 1915, was gifted to Glasgow Corporation in 1955, six years before it was opened as a residential school. It had dorms for up to 75 girls, five teachers and 10 domestic staff before closing in 1993, according to building inspectors.
But behind the grand facade of the 16th century-style building lay an inhumane regime, members of Fornethy House Survivors Group say.
Carolina Kirk, 63, who now lives in Porto, Portugal, said her two six-week stints at Fornethy in 1966 and 1967 left her deaf.
The retired nurse was nine when she was at the school. She is the eldest of six sisters who all suffered abuse at the facility, which now lies abandoned, in a state of disrepair.
She said: “What happened there was beyond cruel. The teachers dishing out the violence enjoyed it.
“I remember one of my sisters sneaked into my dormitory to tell me she’d wet the bed.
“She was terrified so I went to clean the sheets in the bathroom but was caught by a teacher, who beat me about the head.
“I’m sure another beating left me deaf in my left ear. When I told one of the teachers I couldn’t hear she screamed in my ear.
“I remember being force-fed turnips and being unable to eat any more. A teacher screamed at me to finish and I ended up being sick. I was then made to eat the vomit.
“I felt ashamed I wasn’t able to protect my sisters from Fornethy.”
Carolina’s sister Senga Rendall, 56, who now lives in Yeovi l , Somerset, went to Fornethy when she was aged five in 1969.
She said: “I got out of bed to use the toilet and was slapped across the face so hard I was knocked back on to the mattress.
“The beatings were horrible but I also have more sinister memories. I remember being taken to a party in the dining room where there were men. I was forced to sit on the lap of one who was smoking a pipe.”
Angela Larkin said children were ordered to copy down letters to send
to their parents falsely telling them how much fun they were having. The 61-year- old, of Cumbernauld, near Glasgow, was five when she was sent to Fornethy.
She said it lef t her w ith abandonment issues and believes it led to alcohol problems, which she has overcome.
Angela added: “I was a happy child when I went in there. But I didn’t come out one.
“I became an angryngry child then an angry adult. I remember being so excited packingacking my case the night before. ore.
“I’d been told it was a holiday camp but children weren’t allowed too talk to each other.
“I had no word from my mum whi le I wasas there but later found out she’d written a lot.
“It was a climatee of fear, and beatings s were frequent. It’s taken me a lifetime to get to grips with what happened.”
Carol Whyte, 48, went to Fornethy in 1982 after begging her mum to let her go when she was 10.
She said: “It was more like a prisoner of war camp than a holiday camp. I got my first idea something wasn’t right when a girl on the bus warned me what to expect.
“As soon as we arrived we were shouted at and ordered to strip and get in sshared baths. “We wwere made to wawalk around the corridors c naked in front of workmen. work
“A teacher caught me using the bathroobathroom at night and marmarched me to the library to stand for hours as pupunishment. I went in there as someone who loved school and came out hating education.
“I’ve not worked for 18 years and think a lot of difficulties in my adult life can be traced back to Fornethy.”
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “Inquir ies are ongoing following reports of non- recent physical and sexual abuse at Fornethy House, Angus.”
The women are being advised by law firm Thompsons Solicitors.
Solicitor Laura Connor said: “Fornethy is remembered as a house of horrors.
“Vulnerable young girls far from home felt abandoned there and didn’t understand what they had done to deserve the awful treatment they endured.
“I urge other Fornethy survivors to contact us now as we work to get them the justice they deserve.”
The Scott ish Chi ld Abuse Inquiry, which is looking at six specif ic establishments run by Glasgow City Council but not Fornethy said: “We are currently undertaking investigations into more than 100 individual establishments.
“Any further investigations announced in due cour se may include similar institutions to those we are cur rent ly investigating.”
Glasgow Corporation changed its title under reorganisation in 1975 when it became Glasgow District Council. The authority was then renamed Glasgow City Council in 1996.
A spokeswoman for the local authority said: “Our education and social work departments have been approached in the last couple of months about this.
“Unfortunately, due to the period of time we don’t hold any records relating to this establishment but we have offered support and help to the organisation that contacted us.”