SHAMED private school Fettes College could face a corporate prosecution for allowing paedo teachers to abuse kids on an “industrial scale”, we can reveal.
Scotland’s top law officer is understood to have discussed launching a case over safeguarding failings at the Edinburgh school — where monsters preyed on pupils for decades.
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Fettes College could face a corporate prosecution after paedo teachers abused kids on an “industrial scale”Credit: Alamy
Survivors are furious that bosses ignored complaints as sadistic headmaster Anthony Chenevix-Trench battered and molested boysCredit: Hulton Archive – Getty
Among former governors accused of failing to intervene is the retired Lockerbie bomber trial judge Lord Ranald MacLeanCredit: Reuters
Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain has spoken with survivors who are furious that bosses ignored complaints as sadistic headmaster Anthony Chenevix-Trench battered and molested boys and covered up for perverts such as Iain Wares, 86, who has been dubbed “Scotland’s worst paedophile”.
Among former governors accused of failing to intervene is the retired Lockerbie bomber trial judge Lord Ranald MacLean, 87.
The development comes days after Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry chair Lady Smith found systemic errors left youngsters at the private school vulnerable to sex fiends, thugs and racists between the 1950s and 1990s.
Survivor George Scott, 60, told how his abuser’s behaviour was openly discussed at a meeting of the board of governors in the 1970s.
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But the former lawyer revealed: “Instead of phoning the police and getting rid of him, they let him continue teaching for nearly a year.
“The scale of abuse was enormous. Children were being molested every single day when I was there. It was on an industrial scale.
“It seems inconceivable that the governors were not aware of what was going on. My abuser was sent off on a sabbatical to get psychiatric treatment for his obsession with boys.
“So I strongly feel there were people in power who knew exactly what was happening. Lord MacLean later met with others about what happened to them but little to nothing was done.”
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Lady Smith told how college’s refusal to take abuse complaints seriously, conduct investigations, or pass concerns to police left pervert staff able to continue preying on youngsters unchecked.
She concluded bosses were more worried about how any allegations would affect the £54,000-a-year school’s reputation.
It’s feared Wares may have abused as many as 1,000 kids during his decade at Fettes College plus nearby Edinburgh Academy, as well as in his native South Africa.
He is currently fighting extradition from his homeland back to the UK, where he faces 90 charges linked to a total of 65 boys.
Victims have told how he lined pupils up under the pretence of marking their work before groping and molesting them one by one as they filed past his desk.
He also attacked kids in changing rooms after rugby games — and refused to stop when he made one boy cry as pals looked on.
It emerged the beast had three spells of psychiatric treatment at Royal Edinburgh Hospital in the 1960s and ’70s in a bid to cure his “interest in children”.
DECADES OF HELL
- 1971: Sadist Anthony Chenevix-Trench appointed Fettes headmaster after leaving Eton College in disgrace.
- 1973: Paedo maths teacher Iain Wares joins junior school from Edinburgh Academy — where he’d abused kids.
- 1975: Senior staff are alerted to the offending by Wares. But he remains in post. He gets psychiatric treatment to “cure” his “sexual interest” in lads.
- 1976: Wares’ shrink Dr Henry Walton pleads with Chenevix-Trench to keep him on despite knowing of the risk. The beast returns to the classroom.
- MARCH 1979: Board of Governors, including Lord MacLean, informed of allegations against Wares but opts to keep him on for another nine months.
- JUNE 1979: Chenevix-Trench dies aged 60 after surgery while still headmaster. He had abused pupils and covered for at least two beasts.
- 1980s: Sexually abusive male pupil is expelled. Victims’ parents aren’t told.
- 1990s: Schoolgirls report they have been sexually abused by classmates.
- 2015: Cops launch probe into historic abuse at Fettes College. The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry is launched.
- OCTOBER 2025: Wares is arrested in South Africa on 90 sex offence raps. Extradition application is lodged.
- JANUARY 2026: Inquiry chair Lady Smith finds kids were “wholly failed”.
Meanwhile, former World War Two veteran Chenevix-Trench was dogged by rumours of inappropriate behaviour, including dishing out beatings to lads in the privacy of his chambers — usually on their bare backsides.
He was told about Wares’ abuse in 1975 but let him teach on for four years and did not go to cops.
Wares’ offending was finally raised in March 1979 at a meeting of governors — including Lord MacLean.
Minutes showed they “decided” the beast should remain in post until December of that year but that he would “be dismissed instantly” if there was any “further complaint”.
Chenevix-Trench promised to write Wares a reference so he could land another job at King Charles’ former Gordonstoun school in Elgin. But the headmaster died in June of that year.
Lord MacLean was appointed chairman of the Fettes board of governors in 1996. Survivors’ lawyer Alan McLean KC told the probe that the ex-law chief “permitted” Wares “to go on teaching” despite him “knowing he had already spent time in a psychiatric hospital in attempts to treat his paedophilia”.
Victim Jed Gordon, 63, insisted school leaders should be prosecuted as it was “impossible” that they “knew nothing” of Wares’ crimes. He added: “He was able to flee from justice for nearly 50 years.
“Teachers were interested in making their own lives easier instead of protecting kids. Governors were too concerned with the damage a scandal would cause to their reputation. Those who contributed to this failure must be held accountable.”
Lady Smith found that Chenevix-Trench “protected two, and possibly more” kid molesters. So far around £1million has been paid to victims.
Paedo Sir’s legal fight
BY CHRIS TAYLOR
PAEDO maths teacher Iain Wares is fighting being extradited back to Scotland to face 90 charges.
The monster, 86, is accused of vile sex offences against 65 boys at Edinburgh Academy and Fettes College.
He returned to his native South Africa as complaints began piling up.
Campaigners — including BBC presenter Nicky Campbell, 64, who says he saw a pal being attacked — have demanded he be brought back to face justice.
Wares, left, was arrested near Cape Town last October over accusations dating from between 1968 and 1979.
He appeared in court last month and was bailed until a hearing in April.
Scots Labour justice spokeswoman Pauline McNeill said: “It’s vital that anyone who enabled these heinous crimes is held accountable.”
The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service was asked if cases would be pursued against Lord MacLean or Fettes College.
A spokesman said it had “no comment or information to provide”. Lord MacLean declined to comment.
A Fettes College spokesman said: “We have fully cooperated with all formal processes, including the SCAI and police investigations, and will continue to do so.”