Alleged Victims of Abuse to Sue School

Herald Scotland
September 9, 2013

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/alleged-victims-of-abuse-to-sue-school.22092184

VICTIMS of alleged physical and sexual abuse by monks at a former Catholic boarding school are to launch a lawsuit for hundreds of thousands of pounds compensation.

The six who attended Fort Augustus Abbey school, in the Highlands, have instructed an English law firm to sue the Benedictine Order, which ran the institution. David Greenwood, a solicitor for Switalskis, said the firm would be seeking between £30,000 to £100,000 per person depending on the abuse and how it had affected their life and ability to secure employment.

Police launched an inquiry into allegations of abuse following a BBC documentary in which five former pupils said they had been abused by Father Aidan Duggan, an Australian monk who taught at Fort Augustus and Carlekemp, its preparatory school in East Lothian.

Duggan died in 2004 but a number of those accused of abuse are still alive and are now subject of an ongoing investigation by Police Scotland. A spokesman for the Benedictines said it was sorry for any abuse that may have been committed, and any failures to alert authorities at the time.

Last week, an 80-year-old man was charged in connection with abuse at Fort Augustus Abbey school.

After the programme was broadcast, Hugh Gilbert, Bishop of Aberdeen, made a public apology about what happened at the school.

In a separate development, it was reported that priest Patrick Lawson, who urged the Catholic hierarchy to act against a fellow priest accused of abuse, has been dismissed from the diocese of Galloway.