Edinburgh Academy pupils suffered decades of 'dreadful abuse'

Lady Smith, who chairs the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry (SCAI), details more than 40 years of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse at the school in her latest report. "It is clear it was assumed that abuse did not and would not take place; when it did, the school could not accept that it had happened, failed to address it, and failed to recognise the risk of it continuing. Complacency was the order of the day.

"When complaints were made, they were either disbelieved or left unresolved. Staff chose not to notice and avoided intervention or investigation despite there being obvious signs of abuse." The report names two long-serving members of staff as perpetrator of abuse: Hamish Dawson, a housemaster and senior school teacher, and John Brownlee, a housemaster and deputy head of the junior school. The report highlights the evidence of one pupil, who used the pseudonym Henry.

He spent nine years at the school and said abuse was part of daily life. He told the inquiry it was normal for 11-year-olds to be groomed with jelly babies, and for them to be molested in front of other pupils.