‘We weren’t taught.We were tortured’
More than 9,000 boys were sent to List D schools where De La Salle monks taught alongside civilian teachers and staff until the 1980s, writes Marion Scott.
The institutions were St Mary’s in Bishopbriggs, St Ninian’s in Gartmore, St Joseph’s in Tranent, St John’s in Shettleston, Glasgow, and St Mungo’s in Ayrshire, and the boys’ so-called offences were often trivial, playing truant, breaking a window, or stealing sweets or food.
The regimes, however, were brutal, with many boys injured, mentally and physically.
Jimmy Boyle, who would later be convicted of murder before becoming an author and artist in prison, suffered beatings at St John’s where he was held from the age of 14 for stealing a cash box containing £7 from a fairground.
Boyle once said: “The regime meted out by De La Salle monks and staff was the most brutal I ever experienced. Scotland’s prisons ended up being littered with their casualties.
“I was a tough street kid, brought up in the Gorbals, so I was never a target for sexual abuse but I saw and heard it going on all around us, and knew there was no one we could turn to or tell.”
At the ongoing Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry, the De La Salle order issued an “unreserved apology” to any child who was abused.
Brother Laurence Hughes, who is in charge of the order in Britain, told the inquiry, chaired by Lady Smith, he accepted there had been a “systemic failure” to look after children. In a submission to the inquiry, the order said brothers who may have been able to identify other cases of abuse were dead.
Brother Hughes invited anyone who had experienced abuse in the order’s homes to speak to him.
The order was established in the 17th Century by Saint John Baptist De La Salle, in Rheims, France, who became a priest and went on to establish schools “to touch the hearts of poor children”.
Today there are about 3,000 Brothers who continue his legacy at more than 1,000 schools and education centres in 80 countries.
In Scotland De La Salle monks taught at five list D schools – St Ninian’s, St Mary’s, St John’s, St Mungo’s and St Joseph’s. About 9,000 boys were taught by the monks, civilian teachers and staff until the closure of the schools started in 1982.
Many monks moved around, both here and abroad, making it difficult to keep track of where they all were.
Despite hundreds coming forward with allegations of abuse, and police identifying many more, just three men were ever prosecuted – former monk Brother Benedict, real name Michael Murphy; a civilian woodwork teacher Charles McKenna, 83; and a night watchman James McKinstrey, 69.
Victims, some of whom shook in the witness box as they confronted the men who abused them as little boys, were accused by their legal teams of being a “nice little actor”, or that they were “liars”.
The three were found guilty at the High Court in Edinburgh in June 2003.
Each was sentenced to two years for a sickening catalogue of abuse, but one monk stayed out of prison for years before finally having his sentence halved for 10 charges of abuse.
Benedict, who was also known as “Bootsie” by victims because of the boots he often used to kick them, has since been convicted on two more occasions over decades of abuse.
In November last year Murphy, who taught at both St Ninian’s and St Joseph’s in Tranent between 1961 and 1981, was jailed for seven years over 29 charges of sexual and physical abuse, including assault to severe impairment.
He had originally faced 43 charges but the Crown withdrew several.
Murphy was already serving a seven-year jail sentence dating back to 2016 when he was imprisoned for 15 crimes against young boys.
Last year another abuse victim at a De La Salle school spoke for the first time about the years of abuse he suffered at St Mary’s, Bishopbriggs, where he was sent aged 13 for playing truant. Colin Higgins has been fighting for justice for 30 years for the daily beatings and lack of education that shaped his life.
He said: “My punishment was to be brutalised by beatings that would have brought an adult to their knees. We weren’t taught or helped. We were tortured.
“When I came out of St Mary’s two years later, the beatings and bruises had healed. The deepest scars they inflicted couldn’t be seen, but I’ll suffer them to my grave.
We never stood a chance.”