Matthew George and John Muldoon were jailed earlier this month for assault and sexual offences against children at Kerelaw residential school in Ayrshire following accusations dating back to the 1970s.
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But a former colleague, Andrew Walker, now a social work team leader, has openly accused the Kerelaw youngsters of making up stories to cash in on compensation worth millions of pounds.
Walker, who was an assistant headteacher at Kerelaw, said he worked with George and Muldoon at the school for eight years and insisted they would not have abused children.
But last night, former pupils who gave evidence against the two men reacted angrily to Walker's claims, accusing him of trying to protect his friends and his own reputation.
The bitter dispute follows revelations last week that another 11 members of staff at the school are facing charges following a police investigation.
Kerelaw was at one time Scotland's biggest residential school for troubled and vulnerable youngsters, housing pupils with behavioural problems and criminal convictions, including murder and attempted murder.
George, an art teacher, and Muldoon, a care worker, were jailed for a total of 12 years.
Walker, who is employed by Western Isles Council, told Scotland on Sunday: "The youngsters are not telling the truth, they are lying. I think it was fabricated for financial motive."
He added: "I think these men are innocent. I worked with them for eight years and it is not my experience that they would behave in such a way towards young people.
"If I was in the school when this was going on, I really do not understand why it did not come to our attention at the time. It would immediately go outside the school to be investigated and the police would be involved if necessary."
George, a 57-year-old former art teacher from Largs, was sentenced to 10 years for sexually or physically abusing several boys and a girl. Muldoon, a 53-year-old care worker from Irvine, was sentenced to 30 months on indecency charges involving three girls.
Former students told the nine-week trial that George practised martial arts on pupils and threw golf balls at them. Both men are understood to be preparing appeals.
Walker, who became a team leader in children's services in Benbecula and Barra after being made redundant from the school, said many of the pupils were simply "disturbed".
And he accused them of a campaign of revenge on teachers who were simply trying to do a difficult job caring for violent and disruptive children amid serious staff shortages.
He said: "It was the young people who often took it out on the staff who were putting themselves out most to help those young people. Matt and John were the type to set boundaries and children respond to that."
He added: "When staff numbers are low and youngsters are acting up, you really have to try to resume some degree of order. Staff regularly had to be involved in physical confrontations but children would not be abused or ill-treated.
"No one is opposed to children's rights, but people fail to take into account that children have responsibilities as well. Sometimes people have an axe to grind about residential schools. But some of these youngsters are in for murder, attempted murder and serious sex offences. Disturbed children make disturbed adults.
"It all seems to be about these poor kids that were being abused. But that's not the case. There were very committed staff who would go out of their way to help these youngsters who had no one else to care for them."
Walker, and the convicted men's families, believe the fact that the case against them was based on the 'Moorov doctrine' - when the evidence of one alleged victim is used to corroborate that of another - means their convictions are unsafe.
But former pupil Catherine Glen, one of Muldoon and George's victims, said she was furious about Walker's allegations and revealed she still suffers flashbacks and nightmares following her three years at the school.
Glen, now 29, was sent to Kerelaw in the early 1990s for truancy and behavioural problems.
She said: "I am really angry about what Andrew Walker is saying. I think he is just trying to protect his friends and protect himself because he was in a position of authority. I was put through hell in Kerelaw and I still suffer today."
Kerelaw, which housed up to 90 youngsters at a time, was run by Glasgow City Council but was closed three months ago in the wake of the allegations.
Compensation lawyer Cameron Fyfe, who represents 20 former pupils, said: "In many cases, the victims have been abused by two men who have been convicted so it would be very difficult now to try and argue that the abuse did not take place. The jury has reached a conclusion beyond all reasonable doubt."
But Muldoon's lawyer, Philip Cohen, said: "The problem that we faced as a defence was that because the allegations were from the 1970s to the 1990s they were almost impossible to defend.
"We did not have any concrete evidence to go with and the allegations themselves were pretty general in that there was nothing to say when they happened.
"This makes it hard to prove to the contrary because who knows where they were at any one point 20 years ago?"