‘Sadistic’ Edinburgh teacher found to have assaulted pupils for 20 years

[Phoenix Fields 2,714]

A “sadistic” deputy headteacher at one of Scotland’s most prestigious private schools has been found to have conducted a systematic campaign of violence and torture against children as young as eight over a 20-year period.

John Brownlee was found by a sheriff on Wednesday to have committed more than 30 assaults. The former Edinburgh Academy housemaster was formally excused from trial due to his advanced dementia.

Instead, the charges against the 89-year-old were heard in a quasi-trial process known as an “examination of facts” overseen, without a jury, by Sheriff Ian Anderson, who described the teacher’s behaviour as “extreme criminal bullying”.

Brownlee was found to have committed 31 charges of assault and assault to injury, relating to incidents spanning 1967 to 1991, as well as a composite charge of cruel and unnatural treatment across the 20 years he worked as a teacher at the school.

In a case based entirely on the testimony of survivors, Brownlee’s victims – many speaking half a century after the assaults took place – provided harrowing testimony about the arbitrary and gratuitous nature of the violence they endured as children, many boarding away from home for the first time.

The men characterised Brownlee as a “sadist” and a “psychopath”, who relished both the pain he inflicted and the terror of its anticipation.

The teacher was notorious for his use of the “clacken”, a wooden bat he would use to hit their backsides with repeated force, but would also smack, kick and throttle children in his care often without provocation.

Witnesses including Nicky Campbell, the BBC journalist and broadcaster, recounted how Brownlee relished creating an atmosphere of randomised violence and humiliation.

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Brownlee is alleged to have abused pupils between February 1967 and December 1987.

 

 

[StrawberryBlond 15,555]

I wonder if his victims took so long to speak out because their parents didn't believe them as children? And it's not like they would've had personal phones in this time period, so calls home would've been the result of permission, very occasional and likely heavily monitored. I've heard so many horror stories from boarding schools even to this day, I don't know why any parent would send their children to one unless there was no other choice. It stands to reason that anyone who wants to be in a position to abuse and get away with it would choose to work at a boarding school. 

[Delulu Rogers 7,649]

I hate that people like him get lucky enough to live a very long life without consequences. Such an evil person