SCOTLAND
Scotsman
MICHAEL HOWIE
SCOTTISH ministers are battling to have a potential £8.5 million compensation claim from scores of abused former school pupils thrown out, despite a public apology for their suffering from the First Minister, Jack McConnell.
The Executive is appealing against a judge's ruling that appeared to pave the way for legal actions from 170 ex-pupils of three residential schools run by monks from the Catholic order De La Salle.
The Executive's attempt to wash its hands of the negligence claim appears to fly in the face of an apology to the abused former pupils made by Mr McConnell two years ago. At the time he said: "Those children, adults today, deserve full recognition by us of what happened to them. They were badly wronged.
"Now that we know what has happened, it falls to us as representatives of the Scottish people to acknowledge it."