DUNDEE (SCOTLAND)
The Courier
June 4, 2019
By Michael Alexander
The ongoing Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry (SCAI) that was set up to “investigate the nature and extent of abuse of children in care in Scotland” has turned its attention to allegations of abuse at a former residential home in Fife.
Witness statements began to be heard on Tuesday relating to claims that boys were abused at the former St Ninian’s School which was run by the Christian Brothers, in Falkland, before it closed in 1983.
And it was revealed that the headmaster and teacher of the school for troubled boys – who were convicted of physical and sexual abuse against six pupils more than 30 years ago – are to give evidence from behind bars.
John Farrell and Paul Kelly – who were sentenced to five and 10 years respectively in 2016 for assaulting pupils at the former St Ninian’s School in Falkland in the late 1970s and 80s – will give evidence by video screen in mid-June and early-July, the inquiry’s senior counsel Colin MacAulay QC revealed during opening statements in Edinburgh.
The men were members of the Catholic religious order the Congregation of Christian Brothers, which ran the school.
Phase four of the ongoing Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry is expected to last for more than a month. It turned its attention to allegations of abuse at St Ninian’s when it got under way in Edinburgh on Tuesday morning.
Chaired by Lady Smith, opening statements were made on behalf of the Lord Advocate, Chief Constable of Scotland, Scottish ministers, the Bishops Conference and Christian Brothers. Witness statements from two survivors were due in the afternoon.
The inquiry heard how St Ninian’s had a “relatively short existence” from 1951 to 1983.
John Scott of INCAS (In Care Abuse Survivors) began by noting the recent publication of the SCAI report into allegations of abuse at the Sisters of Nazareth home in Kilmarnock which found that children there were subjected to sexual abuse of the “utmost depravity”.
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