Ex-pupils allege they were raped and abused by monks at schools in Scotland, Head of Benedictines apologises over abuse

- Benedictine order plans inquiry into Scotland schools child abuse scandal
- Ex-pupils allege they were raped and abused by monks at schools in Scotland
- Head of Benedictines apologises over abuse
- Police investigate Australian priest over Scottish abuse allegations

Benedictine order plans inquiry into Scotland schools child abuse scandal

Senior figures plan own investigation into allegations that monks abused boys at Fort Augustus and Carlekemp Priory schools

    Severin Carrell, Scotland correspondent
    theguardian.com, Tuesday 30 July 2013

Senior figures in the Benedictine religious order are planning their own inquiry into harrowing allegations that monks sexually and physically abused dozens of boys at two schools in Scotland.

Police in Scotland have launched an investigation into disclosures by former pupils at Fort Augustus in the Highlands and Carlekemp Priory school near Edinburgh that monks subjected them to systematic violence and sexual assaults, including claims that one now deceased monk raped five boys.

Dom Richard Yeo, the head of the UK's largest Benedictine group of congregations, said he had already been contacted by detectives from Police Scotland over the allegations, detailed in a BBC Scotland documentary on Monday.

In May the Observer revealed that a police investigation had begun into Fort Augustus after one pupil, Andrew Lavery, accused monks there of "systematic, brutal, awful torture", which included being locked alone for days at a time in a room.

That included sexual assaults by monks, while other ex-pupils spoke of repeated bullying and sexually predatory behaviour....

The BBC programme, Sins of the Fathers, alleged that nine monks at the schools repeatedly beat, sexually assaulted and, in one case, raped boys in their care over several decades. Victims of the abuse complained but their testimony was ignored. One priest allegedly involved, now living in Sydney, Australia, has been suspended by the Australian church after the BBC tracked him down....

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/jul/30/benedictine-monks-inquiry-scotland-child-abuse

Ex-pupils allege they were raped and abused by monks at schools in Scotland

Men tell BBC documentary they suffered sexual and physical assaults while at two exclusive schools which have since closed

    Severin Carrell, Scotland correspondent
    The Guardian, Monday 29 July 2013

Dozens of pupils at exclusive Roman Catholic boarding schools in Scotland have alleged they were sexually and physically abused by monks, one of whom allegedly raped at least five boys.

Nine Benedictine monks who taught at the Fort Augustus Abbey school in the Highlands and its preparatory school in East Lothian have been accused of repeatedly beating, sexually assaulting and verbally abusing boys in their care over several decades.

One monk, Father Aidan Duggan, who taught at Fort Augustus and Carlkemp prep school, which both closed in the 1990s, was accused by five ex-pupils of raping and sexually abusing them, but they claim their allegations were ignored and rejected by two headteachers, according to the BBC.

Duggan, an Australian, died in 2004 after returning to become a parish priest in Sydney.

Another priest, Father Chrysostom Alexander, now 77, is also alleged to have abused one pupil at the Fort Augustus school in the 1970s.

Alexander, also an Australian, returned to work in Sydney and has now been suspended by the Catholic church after he was challenged about the allegations by a BBC journalist. Alexander did not respond to the allegations.

The allegations, in a BBC documentary Sins of the Fathers, broadcast on BBC1 Scotland on Monday, are now being investigated by Police Scotland in the latest in a series of scandals about abuse by priests and misconduct by senior figures within the Scottish church....

One former pupil, Donald Macleod, told the documentary that Duggan had effectively groomed him before raping him when he was 14.

Macleod tried to raise the alarm but the then headteacher refused to hear about the alleged rape, warning him that lies were a mortal sin.

The BBC documentary alleges the Benedictine authorities failed to warn their Australian counterparts about the allegations against Duggan, who continued to abuse in Sydney.

The Benedictines are also accused of using Fort Augustus as a secret "dumping ground" for problem priests who were removed from their parishes after being accused of abusing children.

Their superiors are alleged to have used that transfer to cover up the abuse....
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/jul/29/pupils-allege-rape-catholic-schools-scotland 

Head of Benedictines apologises over abuse
29 July 2013

The Abbot President of the Benedictines, which ran Fort Augustus, has apologised to any victims of child abuse, after the BBC uncovered evidence of serious physical and sexual abuse at the boarding school.

Accounts of abuse at the now-closed Fort Augustus Abbey School, in the Highlands, and feeder school Carlekemp, in East Lothian, span 30 years....
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-23490806 


Police investigate Australian priest over Scottish abuse allegations
Tue Jul 30, 2013 AEST

A six month investigation by the BBC has found a multitude of allegations of sexual and physical abuse over 30 years at the prestigious Fort Augustus Abbey School in Scotland. Two Australian men are at the centre of the allegations, including one who's been suspended from the Catholic Church pending an investigation.
Ashley Hall

Transcript

ASHLEY HALL: Donald McLeod was 13 when he went to the Abbey in 1961.

DONALD MCLEOD: Um...

INTERVIEWER: He raped you?

DONALD MCLEOD: Yeah, I guess so. Yes.

ASHLEY HALL: The man who attacked him was an Australian, Aidan Duggan. Donald McLeod says Duggan groomed him during piano and photography lessons, and then, when he was 14, Duggan sexually assaulted him.

Donald McLeod raised the alarm, but no one believed him.

MARK DALY: The headmaster refused to believe the allegation, told the boy that he was lying and that if he continued to lie about Father Aidan, that he would go to hell. And nothing was done to Father Aidan. He was allowed to continue teaching and continue abusing.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-30/police-investigate-australian-priest-over-scottish/4853630?section=nsw