The Silence of Our Lambs
Let these archives be a stark reminder of who and what the enemy is. Evil was first born in the ranks of those who are treated as gods and resides in power and thrives with prestige.
Skip to content
Home
Cops told: Top Labour MP is a paedo
Experts back The Sun and want Royal Archives opened
Police files on child sex abuse at Gordonstoun school have vanished | Society | The Guardian
AngelA / June 28, 2015
Official files on police investigations of child abuse at Gordonstoun, the school in the Scottish Highlands that educated the Queen’s sons and Prince Philip, appear to have gone missing or been destroyed.
In a case investigated by the Observer, a teacher named Derek Jones seriously sexually assaulted a number of children attending the junior school around 1990. He was twice questioned by police in the following years after the children told their parents what had happened. Files were forwarded to the Procurator Fiscal, Scotland’s prosecution service, but it was decided not to prosecute. The files would normally be retained, but Scotland’s Crown Office says they now cannot be found.
Jones died in a car crash in Kenya six years ago. But two of his victims, now in their 30s, want to discover why he was not prosecuted. Gordonstoun sacked Jones, who had been an English teacher in the junior school for three months. The school’s bursar told the boys’ parents that the school would ensure he never taught again.
One of the boys, John Findlay, was drugged, photographed naked and sexually assaulted in his dormitory bed at Aberlour House, Gordonstoun’s junior school. He told his parents what had happened soon afterwards. A police investigation was launched, but the Findlays decided, after pressure from the school, not to press for a prosecution.
Another man, who does not want to be named, has told the Observer he was groomed and taught to masturbate by Jones when he was 12. He said that Jones also performed oral sex on him and showed him pictures of boys at another school who had also been the teacher’s “favourites”, implying that they also had sex with him.
He told his parents about the assault a year later. His family went to the local police, who mounted an investigation and assured them that a prosecution would happen because other complaints had been received about Jones. But shortly before the court date, the Procurator Fiscal told the boy’s mother that there would be no prosecution. No reason was given.
Findlay believes that Jones did go on to teach again. He has already served a freedom of information request on Police Scotland. He asked the force to reveal the details of all their inquiries at the time of Jones’s assault on him, first detailed in an Observer magazine investigation in April that also uncovered allegations of the rapes of two 12-year-old girls at Aberlour House.
The FOI request was refused on grounds of privacy and excessive cost. Findlay plans to appeal. “If there has been a tradition of abuse and cover-up anywhere children are looked after by people who aren’t their parents, it needs to be known by the public,” he says.
The Procurator Fiscal’s office told the Observer: “We do not have a record of a case against Derek Jones on the system and we are unable to establish at this stage if we did receive a report from the police and if so what the reason was for not prosecuting.”
But police in Elgin have assured the victims that files did go to the prosecutor, and found the reference number of one of the original complaints.
The Procurator Fiscal’s office said that such files would normally be kept, even if the decision was made not to proceed with a prosecution. But the cases all precede computerisation of the prosecutors’ archive.
The office was unable to say whether all records relating to abuse complaints at Gordonstoun, of which there have been several since the 1970s, had gone missing or just the documents that were concerned with the Jones allegations.
In England and Scotland, lost police files have been a recurring problem in the current wave of revelations around historical abuse in childcare institutions.
One of the reasons for setting up an inquiry, which is soon to begin in England under a New Zealand judge, Lowell Goddard, was the fact that the Home Office had lost files of allegations concerning important people given by Geoffrey Dickens MP to the then home secretary, Leon Brittan. Both men have since died.
The Scottish government has announced its own inquiry into abuse of children in institutions. After protests, its remit was extended to private boarding schools. Police Scotland recently announced that its National Child Abuse Investigation Unit had started inquiries into 45 institutions, including 17 schools.
A spokeswoman for Gordonstoun said: “It is absolutely right that any allegation of abuse is thoroughly investigated. We have recently taken a number of steps to address any allegations of historic abuse proactively, including writing to former students urging them to come forward if they were affected. We will continue to help any former student as best we can.” Gordonstoun’s junior school was separately managed until 2004.
via Police files on child sex abuse at Gordonstoun school have vanished | Society | The Guardian.
Share this:
TwitterFacebookPrintGooglePress ThisEmailPinterestPocketTumblrLinkedInReddit
June 28, 2015 in Allegations of Police Corruption, Gordonstoun School, National Child Abuse Investigation Unit, The Guardian. Tags: Aberlour House, Derek Jones, Geoffrey Dickens MP, Gordonstoun, John Findlay, Judge Lowell Goddard, Kenya, National Child Abuse Investigation Unit, Observer magazine investigation, Prince Philip, Procurator Fiscal, Scotland’s Crown Office, The Guardian
Related posts
Police probe child abuse claims at monastery – The Scotsman
Top Scotland school in abuse claims | Scotland | News | Daily Express
Edward Heath child abuse claims investigated by five police forces
Post navigation
← Janner ‘violated, raped & tortured’ children on Westminster Palace estate, MP alleges
Crown Office rules out FAI into death of SNP activist Willie McRae →
Leave a Reply
Follow Blog via Email
Click to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.
Join 362 other followers
RSS – Posts
The Flood
Archives
January 2016
December 2015
November 2015
October 2015
September 2015
August 2015
July 2015
June 2015
May 2015
April 2015
March 2015
Google – child abuse
Police reveal scale of probe into historical child sex abuse in Derbyshire September 17, 2017
Sexual abuse survivor speaks of ‘relief’ after former teacher is jailed September 17, 2017
Community still shocked by ruling of the Barberton Porn parents case September 17, 2017
Preventing Substance Abuse in ADHD Takes Early Treatment, Harvard Expert Says September 17, 2017
Abandoned children found weighing only 13 pounds: Blind, nearly lifeless after ‘mom’ allegedly … September 17, 2017
Google – sexual abuse
Amber Tamblyn wrote an incredibly powerful op-ed about harassment, abuse, and sexual assault September 17, 2017
Police reveal scale of probe into historical child sex abuse in Derbyshire September 17, 2017
Use political weight to eliminate sexual exploitation and abuse, UN official urges global leaders September 17, 2017
Amber Tamblyn Speaks Out Against Sexual Harassment, & It’s A Vital Message For All Young … September 17, 2017
Sexual abuse survivor speaks of ‘relief’ after former teacher is jailed September 17, 2017
Google – paedophile
“paedophile” for expressing concern over police killing teens September 17, 2017
Philippines president attacks human rights watchdog: ‘Are you gay or a paedophile?’ September 17, 2017
‘Paedophile hunter’ confronted man who took condoms for meeting with girl at Bath’s KFC September 17, 2017
Girl, 12, could face charges after sending topless photo to paedophile who groomed her online September 17, 2017
Schoolgirl groomed by online paedophile could face charges September 17, 2017
Blog at WordPress.com.
Follow
Skip to toolbar
My Sites
Switch Site
Short shorts – short…
katrinasal1999.wordpress.com
Stats
Plan
Free
Manage
Site Pages
Add
Blog Posts
Add
Media
Add
Comments
Personalize
Themes
Customize
Configure
Sharing
People
Add
Plugins
Add
Domains
Add
Settings
WP Admin
Reader
Streams
Followed Sites
Manage
Discover
Search
My Likes
Katrina
@katrinasal1999katrina
Sign Out
Profile
My Profile
Account Settings
Manage Purchases
Security
Notifications
Special
Get Apps
Next Steps
Help
Write
Log Out
