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HELL IN A CELL<\/p>\n
Scots prison guard reveals notorious rapist caused mayhem in his cell<\/p>\n
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\u201cHad complaints been listened to and acted upon at the outset, many children would have been saved from abuse. The suffering they still endure, over 50 years later in the 2020s, could all have been prevented.\u201d<\/p>\n
Former prime minister Sir Tony Blair, who has not been involved in the inquiry, was a pupil at Fettes.<\/p>\n
In 2022, a former pupil who was abused by a former teacher at the school was awarded \u00a3450,000 in damages.<\/p>\n
It was a boys-only boarding school until 1972, when it started taking female day pupils, before becoming fully co-educational in 1983.<\/p>\n
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Inquiry chairwoman Lady Smith said perpetrators of abuse included a headmaster, the late Anthony Chenevix-Trench, and Iain Wares, who is facing allegations of abuse.<\/p>\n
Wares, who also taught at Edinburgh Academy, currently lives in South Africa, where extradition proceedings to return him to Scotland are ongoing.<\/p>\n
Commenting on the appointment of Chenevix-Trench, Lady Smith said: \u201cChenevix-Trench was appointed as head of Fettes, having previously been head of Eton College.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was, in fact, a man who was unfit to be appointed to lead a school on account of his having lost the trust of senior masters at Eton, having a problem with drinking, and having a propensity to beat boys excessively.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was appointed despite these matters having been expressly disclosed to Fettes by Eton.<\/p>\n
\u201cChenevix-Trench was also attracted to young blond teenagers at Eton, a predilection of which the provost of Eton College was aware.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lady Smith found children were physically abused at Fettes both by teachers and by other pupils, and there was a \u201cculture of silence\u201d as victims feared retribution and being ostracised if they complained.<\/p>\n
Lady Smith noted an incident during an initiation ceremony in the 1980s when a boy was hung upside down out of a third-storey window by his ankles.<\/p>\n
She also said it was \u201cnot uncommon to find boys hanging by their underpants from coat hooks and unable to get down, put there by other boys they had annoyed\u201d.<\/p>\n
Her report, which forms part of the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry\u2019s boarding schools case study, also described a \u201csexualised culture\u201d which existed at Fettes before and after the introduction of co-education.<\/p>\n
On racism at the school, Lady Smith highlighted that \u201cmocking by staff and pupils of anyone who was not British was normalised into the 1990s\u201d.<\/p>\n
Retired lawyer George Scott, 60, gave evidence to the inquiry about the abuse he suffered at the hands of Wares in the late 70s.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cIt has made me quite emotional.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy life was changed by the abuse I endured, and it continues to affect me every day almost 50 years later in ways I am not always conscious of.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven now I have flashbacks, I struggle to sleep and I feel disengaged from life.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe findings strengthen demands from survivors for action against the school and those in power who knew what was going on and did nothing to stop it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jed Gordon,\u00a063, who also suffered at the hands of the paedo teacher, called for those who brought him in and protected him to face punishment.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cThere are powerful people who were told directly what was going on and refused to stop children from being abused.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey must answer for what they allowed to happen.\u201dLady Morag Wise, chairwoman of the governors at Fettes, said: \u201cWe apologise unreservedly to those who suffered abuse at the school.\u201d<\/p>\n
The inquiry, which aims to raise public awareness of the abuse of children in care, is considering evidence up to December 17 2014, and which is within the living memory of any person who suffered abuse.<\/p>\n
Former prime minister Sir Tony Blair, who has not been involved in the inquiry, was a pupil at FettesCredit: REUTERS<\/p>\n
The inquiry described a \u201csexualised culture\u201d which existed at Fettes before and after the introduction of co-educationCredit: Alamy Stock Photo\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: Alamy Stock Photo CHILDREN at Fettes College were \u201cwholly failed\u201d by the school where vile abusers targeted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":727706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,1389,30,1102,4884,209,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-727705","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-children-parenting-and-family-life","10":"tag-courts","11":"tag-edinburgh","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-longtail","14":"tag-scotland","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115976283475503929","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=727705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/727706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=727705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=727705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=727705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Fettes](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/2E0CGDAjpg-JS779785079jpg-JS781502415.jpg\")
Credit: Alamy Stock Photo<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/newspress-collage-a1xogrxqu-1769622903570.jpg\"\/)
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