Pupils suffered years of abuse in macho culture, finds report
By Michael Howie
A DAMNING report yesterday revealed years of "significant failures" in management and a "macho" culture at a school for troubled youngsters rocked by an abuse scandal.
Kerelaw Residential School in Ayrshire faced hundreds of alleged cases of physical and sexual abuse from its former pupils dating back to the 1990s.
Pupils' claims ranged from suffering sexual abuse to being restrained by "bouncing somebody off the wall, twisting their arm up their back or putting pressure on joints", according to an independent report.
The inquiry concluded "physical abuse (by staff] was prevalent", and found that "staggering" factionalism and inappropriate relationships among staff contributed to the scandal.
Former prisons chief Eddie Frizzell, who chaired the inquiry, made a raft of recommendations designed to prevent wide-scale abuse from happening elsewhere. They include better performance management, improved training, more effective investigation and disciplinary procedures and more follow-up inspection work.
Kerelaw opened as a residential school in 1970 and was run by Strathclyde Regional Council until local government reorganisation in 1996, when Glasgow City Council took it over. It closed in 2004 after poor inspection reports, allegations of child abuse, bullying and harassment.
In 2006, Matthew George, an arts teacher, was jailed for ten years for a "horrifying catalogue" of offences connected to abuse at Kerelaw. Fellow employee John Muldoon, 53, a care worker, was jailed for two-and-a-half years. Yesterday's report revealed there were between 350 and 400 allegations from 159 people complaining of emotional, physical or sexual abuse.
Some youngsters told the inquiry they had been hurt as a result of being poorly restrained, and others said they has been assaulted without any pretence of being restrained. Some staff admitted undertaking restraints that were poorly executed, but none admitted intentionally assaulting youngsters in their care. One method of restraint, known as "therapeutic crisis intervention" (TCI) was adopted in 1996 by Strathclyde council and was meant to calm critical situations.
But some staff used physical intervention as a first rather than a last resort – and there was also emotional abuse. "The language of failure and 'dumping', ridicule about family backgrounds and teasing and bullying seem all to have played a part in the emotional abuse of residents," said the report.
Mr Frizzell yesterday said leadership and management failures were "present over a number of years" at Kerelaw and Glasgow City Council. "It was this institution 30 miles away, it had done its own thing over the years, it had been a list D school – it didn't feature strongly on Glasgow's radar," he said.
The abuse was "largely physical" and covered a range of staff who did not realise or often "didn't care" they were carrying out abuse. Mr Frizzell said: "You don't bounce people off walls, drag them up and down stairs, you don't throw them down on a bed and sit on them. What we were getting was the picture of a macho environment."
Children's minister, Adam Ingram, said the findings had to be considered by all children's home providers. Steven Purcell, leader of Glasgow City Council, which jointly ordered the report with the Scottish Government, accepted the findings in full. He said: "The council will use the Kerelaw report as a key document in reviewing its strategy for residential child care."