Ex-pupil sues Fettes over alleged abuse during swimming lessons
● Former pupil due to give evidence to child abuse inquiry later this year
Fettes College is b eing sued by a former pupil who alleges she and others were sexually abused during swimming lessons.
The woman claims she was groped while she was at Scotland’s most expensive private school in the early 1990s.
The school in Edinburgh was made aware of the allegations and banned the staff member from the pool area, but did not dismiss him.
The former pupil is due to give evidence later this year to the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry, which will hear evidence aboutFett es, Loretto in East Lothian and Gordonstoun in Moray.
The inquiry has been suspended due to Covid-19, but the woman has lodged a legal action seeking an apology and damages for the lack of an apology and the lack of care she claims she received while in its junior school.
She told a Sunday newspaper: “What happened to me and the way the school reacted has affected my whole life.
“The inappropriate touching in the pool and the way I was humiliated and bullied made me want some remedy.
“As a child I felt powerless, but I have a voice now.”
Her law firm, Thompsons, is curently representing more than 1,000 sexual abuse survivors in actions against private schools, religious organisations and football clubs, including Celtic and Rangers.
The former pupil added: “I remember tickles, being lifted from the water, having my ears nibbled. I hated it all.”
The teacher was banned from entering the pool after a fellow teacher heard pupils talking about swimming lessons.
He was rep or tedly so concerned that he rep or ted his colleague to school authorities, who ordered the ban but did not sack him or demand his resignation over the allegations.
The woman at the centre of the legal action said: “Next time we had swimming, he was furious, shouting that because of us he could not even enter his own pool.
“But he still had power over us.”
She continued :“Before he was banned, he had worked out ways to touch us without being seen. It was frightening and humiliating.”
Several years after the alleged abuse claims were made, the school reported the matter to police.
A report was sent by officers from the then-Lothian and B orders Police to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.
However, a decision was made to “no -pro” the case – meaning to not proceed with any prosecution against the teacher, who was by then of pension age in his late 60s.
Discussing her client’s claim, solicitor Laura Connor – who specialises in handing such cases as head of Thompsons’ historic abuse unit – said the woman had suffered “appalling” experiences.
A spokesman for Fettes College confirmed the original allegations were passed to the police.
He added: “The college co - operated fully with the police investigation in 1998. As was widely reported at the time, the case did not proceed.”