Former priest denies assaulting pupils at Highland abbey

STV
August 23, 2016

http://stv.tv/news/highlands-islands/1364902-former-priest-denies-assaulting-pupils-at-highland-abbey/

Fort Augustus: The Benedictine monastery closed in 1999.

An 83-year-old former priest at Fort Augustus Abbey in the Highlands has denied assaulting eight pupils.

The incidents are alleged to have happened between June 1974 and July 1988 when Thomas Seed was a teacher at the school on the banks of Loch Ness.

Seed, of Brora, Sutherland, who went by the name Father Benedict, denied all charges at Inverness Sheriff Court on Tuesday.

His trial was due to begin next month but has been adjourned and is now expected to go ahead in Inverness on January 23.

Seed denies eight charges of assault to injury, which include allegedly kicking a child in the head, striking a child with a spiked golf shoe and hitting children with a cane.

The former priest taught chemistry at the Roman Catholic school in Fort Augustus before moving to Sutherland when the abbey closed in 1999.

Born in Berwickshire, he joined the Benedictine monastery in 1950 and remained a member of the community there for 49 years, serving as house master and headmaster.

Seed had his bail continued on Tuesday.