Former Edinburgh Academy teacher John Brownlee found to have launched attacks on students over 20 years

Members of the Edinburgh Academy Survivors group gave a statement outside court.

A former Edinburgh teacher at an exclusive private school has been found to have carried out a shocking series of attacks on pupils over a 20 year period.

John Brownlee regularly assaulted children with various implements including a wooden bat called a Clacken, a snooker cue and a golf club while he taught at the capital’s Edinburgh Academy. Brownlee, now aged 89, also choked several young boys and ordered them to sit in freezing cold baths and punished them by making them dig in a garden without the proper clothing in cold weather, all between 1967 and 1987.

Brownlee was deemed unfit to stand trial due to ill health and an examination of facts hearing has been held at Edinburgh Sheriff Court over the past two weeks. 

Edinburgh Academy Survivors group members outside Edinburgh Sheriff Court

On Wednesday, fiscal depute Graeme Clark made his closing the speech to the hearing where he said Brownlee had carried out “unacceptable”, “unjustified” and “excessive” force when chastising his pupils.

Mr Clark spoke for almost two hours describing in detail the abuse suffered by 30 pupils including “ferocious” assaults using an array of implements.

The fiscal said one witness had described Brownlee as “a psychopath” who enjoyed handing out the beatings and another had been left “begging for mercy” after curling into a ball to avoid further punishment.

The court was told pupils at the school were regularly mocked by the teacher and regularly assaulted by him kicking, punching and slapping them to the head and body.

Some witnesses said they were locked in a shed over a weekend, hung over a stairwell and forced to sit in cold baths and hot showers as punishment for misbehaving.

The court also heard of one horrific incident where Brownlee inserted a garden hose into the buttocks of one young boy as punishment for soiling himself.

Defence lawyer Andrew Seggie said the use of the clacken at the school had been deemed “reasonable and proportionate” at the time and that Brownlee may have used “reasonable chastisement” during some of the incidents.

In his judgement, Sheriff Ian Anderson said he found all the Crown witnesses bar one to be “credible and reliable” and found the facts proven on 32 charges including 30 of assault.

Sheriff Anderson said: “In reaching these findings I gave due consideration to the evidence of the defence witnesses. In most respects they could not speak to the events in the charges. In any event I accepted the evidence of the complainers where there was a conflict.”

The hearing heard from more than 30 former pupils, who are now all adults, who detailed the sadistic abuse they suffered at the hands of the teacher between February 1967 and December 1987.

BBC broadcaster Nicky Campbell told the court of the harrowing physical abuse he endured while a pupil at the top Edinburgh school between 1966 and 1978.

The 62-year-old presenter said the abuse started when was around 11 years old and that Brownlee was an “arbitrarily violent” man whose mood could turn very quickly. He described one incident where he was forced to the ground in a corridor and pummelled to his neck and skull for about 20 seconds by the brutal teacher.

Mr Campbell also told how he and other pupils were often made to bend over the teacher's desk and were struck with a wooden paddle called a clacken, which is used in a ball game at the school.

Brownlee’s wife Margaret, 83, told the hearing all the allegations against her husband were “absolute nonsense” and she had never witnessed him being violent towards children.

Brownlee’s son Graham said he found Edinburgh Academy to be “a very happy school”and that the boarding house had “a great atmosphere”. He said didn’t see any beatings at the prep school and the idea of his father using a clacken stick to deliver excessive corporal punishment attacks was “ridiculous”.

Speaking outside court, Graeme Sneddon, of the Edinburgh Academy Survivors Group, said Brownlee was “a sadistic and violent monster who took great joy” in beating schoolboys.

Mr Sneddon said: “The harm Brownlee did to young boys has caused a lifetime of damage for everybody concerned. Justice has been done today after a wait of over 50 years for some former pupils.”

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service has been approached for comment.