Beasts of Kerelaw

By Paula Murray

Troubled kids were abused

TWO men who abused troubled kids they were supposed to be looking after were behind bars last night.

Art teacher Matthew George, 56, and residential care worker John Muldoon, 53, originally faced 85 charges dating back 30 years.

A total of 21 men and 17 women were lined up to describe the physical and sexual abuse they claimed to have suffered at Kerelaw School, near Stevenson, in Ayrshire.

George, of Largs, and Muldoon, from Irvine, had denied all the charges.

But after nine weeks of evidence and speeches and almost five full days of discussion the jury found them guilty.

George was found guilty of 18 charges and Muldoon found guilty of four.

George hit kids, forced them to perform sex acts on him and abused them in other ways.

Muldoon was found guilty of indecency by going into girls' bedrooms or showers, lying on one youngster's bed and fondling her.

George was suspended from Kerelaw School after the allegations against them emerged, while Muldoon was fired in December 2004 for "gross misconduct".

After the verdicts were read out the pair were led to the cells at the High Court in Edinburgh to the sound of clapping led by one of their victims.

Glasgow City Council ordered the closure of crisis-hit Kerelaw after a probe by the Care Commission and education inspectors almost two years ago.

George and Muldoon's trial was linked to damning reports into the way the school had been run.

The mammoth hearing had heard how former pupils blamed the pair for problems which continued to dog them in later life.

The witnesses included one man who is now serving life for murder and others who are also in jail.

The trial also heard evidence of "rag-dolling" assaults on unruly pupils by pushing and shaking them.

A forensic scientist told how she found the gym wall pock-marked with holes made by flying golf balls - backing up pupils' claims that they were taken there to be pelted with missiles as a punishment.

After the verdicts, a 39-year-old father of two, who had told the trial how karate-chopping George practised on pupils, said that he felt "vindicated" by the results.

But the man, who cannot be named, said he would continue to demand answers from Glasgow City Council about why they failed to protect him after sending him to Kerelaw for truanting.

He had told the trial how he was sitting on his bed after returning late from a weekend visit to his mum when George came in.

He told the court: "Without saying anything at all he came over to me and he systematically started strikingme.

"My crime was not going to school." Kerelaw opened in the early 70s and girls began to be admitted a decade later.

Some were sent by courts or children's hearings because they have committed serious offences - even murder.

Others were there because of unruly behaviour or difficulties at home.

A violent criminal who claimed he took a gun into a classroom where he had been sexually abused years earlier said his planned revenge was only halted when he saw the classroom was full of pupils.

The 40-year-old man, currently serving a jail sentence, added: "I was going to kill him. Back then I had the mind of a coldblooded killer but all that is gone now.

"I walked into the same classroom I was abused in. I seen the kids. "There was no way I was going to do anything in a class of kids."

Instead, he said, he made a pretence of chatting politely to the teacher then left.

Lady Paton called for background reports and remanded both men in custody pending sentence.