In a legal case likely to see more claims made, Angus Bell who suffered child abuse at an elite East Lothian private school has demanded £1million for the violence he faced.
For the first time, Angus Bell spoke on record about his experiences in Loretto School, in Musselburgh, during the 1990s, one of Scotland’s most exclusive private education environments.
Loretto was looked at during the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry; Angus shared his experience anonymously during the investigation, but he has now said he is seeking financial compensation for the violence he suffered; he describes his time at the school as “eight years in hell.” The Daily Record reports.
“I was a child caught in a madhouse of sexual and emotional abuse as well as violence,” he claimed. Years later, even today, recalling it causes me to curl up and cry.
“I saw children burned on fire and their genitalia disfigured by boot-based gang beatings. Daily, we were thrashed with cricket bats and hockey sticks. On beds, one found excretion and urine.
“I was confined in trunks and strangled after being whipped with belt buckles, tossed downstairs, and water-boarded in filthy toilets. None of this seems out of place at an ISIS torture site, let alone a school costing families hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Chair Lady Smith of the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry discovered that a small number of staff members and other children mistreated students of Loretto. After allegations against him in 1967, one teacher—the late Guy Ray-Hills—a frequent sexual predator—was let to quit with references.
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Digby Brown, Angus’s solicitor, remarked, “We know Mr Bell is one of many who suffered at Loretto, but his courage could be the catalyst to herald a new wave of justice against yet another institution that failed children it was responsible for.”
Loretto School declared: “It is not appropriate to offer any comment at this stage in light of the ongoing legal position and our responsibility of confidentiality to the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry.”
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