Who are the real victims of the Kerelaw abuse scandal?
ByThere are two contrasting letters in Scotland on Sunday (2nd July 2006) regarding Kerelaw.
I refer to Kate Foster’s article regarding staff convicted of abuse at Kerelaw residential school (‘Jailed abuse teachers are innocent’, June 25). I did not work at Kerelaw and do not know the individuals concerned. I do, however, have sufficient knowledge of Kerelaw and of the residential school sector more generally to feel deeply uneasy about the situation unfolding there.
What happens in cases of this sort is that an allegation of abuse is made, of which there is rarely any independent corroboration. The police then pursue former residents of an establishment in a process that has become known as “trawling”. Similar allegations thus elicited are deemed to corroborate one another, despite the fact they invariably lack specificity. It is a process fraught with difficulty when applied to a residential school setting where staff, by the nature of their tasks, find themselves in close proximity to youngsters and may at times be required to physically control them.
Inevitably, some former residents, now adults, hold grudges towards staff members. The situation is further muddied by the prospect of financial compensation being awarded to alleged victims.
This situation is ripe for abuse, a fact acknowledged by a House of Commons home affairs sub-committee investigating allegations of historic abuse, which claimed that the practice of trawling had contributed to the creation of “a new genre of miscarriages of justice”. Trawling has now been largely discontinued in England and Wales on account of these concerns, and a number of convictions of staff in residential care homes have subsequently been overturned. It is worrying to see the practice emerging in Scotland. It puts at risk any member of staff who has worked in residential child care over a period of time.
Mark Smith, EdinburghTHE assertions attributed to Andrew Walker, a former assistant headteacher at Kerelaw are simply appalling. Havving worked with troubled children and young adults in the past, including within an institutional setting, I know how demanding their behaviour can be. That said, it is the purpose of the institution to absorb that behaviour and hopefully set youngsters on better paths in life. Blaming the youngsters for merely manifesting problems is wrong: the blame lies with the regime. If staff have difficulty coping with large and aggressive young men, think what it must be like for the younger, more submissive, residents.
Smearing victims of abuse (established as such by the court) as mercenaries is taking things to another level though. Would Mr Walker blame rape victims for the crime they endured? Or, is it because these are youngsters, and troubled ones at that, that they should be accorded no credibility?
The consequences of the comments made by Mr Walker are manifold: the abused victims involved will now likely encounter increased scepticism in all avenues of their life; they will feel further victimised by this; and residents of other analogous institutions shall be deterred from disclosing current episodes of abuse.
Mercifully, our judiciary system does not yet run on the basis of what Mr Walker can feel in his water.
Archie Beaton, InvernessYou might also like to know that a Kerelaw staff support group has been set up. They are in the process of developing a website on the Kerelaw Scandal.