Man awarded six-figure sum over Loretto School abuse claims

A man who said he was physically and sexually abused by his fellow pupils at a boarding school in East Lothian has agreed a six-figure sum in damages.

Angus Bell, 44, claimed students were “set on fire, beaten with cricket bats and strangled” in a “madhouse” of violence and psychological abuse at Loretto School in Musselburgh during the 1990s.

A civil trial, thought to be the first to involve pupil-on-pupil abuse, was due to begin at the Court of Session in Edinburgh on 12 June, but the school opted to settle out of court.

Loretto School has been contacted for comment.

Mr Bell spent eight years at the school from the age of 10.

He said he was whipped with belt buckles, thrown down flights of stairs, locked in trunks and waterboarded in a dirty toilet.

Mr Bell also claimed he witnessed children being set on fire and having their “genitals mutilated from gang beatings with boots”.

He described every day as a “cross between The Purge and The Running Man,” adding it was “eight years in hell”.

Mr Bell, who gave evidence to the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry on his experiences, said no-one from Loretto had never apologised for the abuse he suffered.

He said: “The school knew abuse was happening and all too often chose to look the other way.

“The daily abuse I suffered at Loretto, from eight years of unchecked, harrowing peer-on-peer assaults, has been life changing.

“I entered Loretto as a tiny, defenceless, 10-year-old boy. I endured eight years of abuse, 34 years of post-traumatic stress disorder, four and a half years of legal battle, and in the end, that little boy beat the system.”

Mr Bell praised the work of a former English teacher David Stock who kept evidence of abuse at the school after leaving in 1991.

He said dozens of fellow former pupils and staff had reached out to offer their support.

Loretto previously acknowledged pupils were abused by a teacher in the 1950s and 60s.

Richard Pitts, partner at legal firm Digby Brown, who led the action, said: “The treatment depicted at Loretto was horrific – in my years as an abuse solicitor it’s among some of the worst accounts of violence and depravity I’ve ever heard of.

“Angus has been strong, calm and resilient throughout his entire journey and I commend him for what he has been able to do because he has not just secured justice for himself – in all likelihood he has opened the doors to help others get the outcome they deserve too.”