An abuse survivor is suing a Catholic Church sect and a local authority after he was assaulted by a monk at a residential school.
Michael Murphy, known as Brother Benedict or Brother Ben, abused children in the 1970s and 1980s when he worked at St Joseph's School in Tranent, East Lothian.
He was jailed for seven years in April 2016 at the High Court in Edinburgh after being found guilty of physically and sexually abusing eight boys.
The physical abuse he carried out included habitual and sustained physical punishment as well as the administration of electric shocks, the Crown Office said at the conclusion of the case.
The anonymous survivor, now in his 50s, is suing East Lothian Council and De La Salle Brothers and is seeking damages estimated at a six-figure sum for the pain caused by the former schoolmaster.
He said Brother Benedict "ruined not just my childhood but my adult life".
He added: "He abused his position while working alongside the Council and the Church to fulfil his own sick desires.
"I hope now to be able to find the means to help me rebuild my life."
Murphy, from Liss in Hampshire, also had a previous conviction for 10 earlier assaults on boys when he worked at St Ninian's School, Gartmore, near Stirling, between 1960 and 1969 which resulted in a 12-month jail sentence.
He has been placed on the sex offenders' register indefinitely.
Kim Leslie, Partner and Specialist Abuse Lawyer at Digby Brown Solicitors, said: "Following the conviction of Brother Benedict we are now investigating the matter on behalf of our client who was subjected to a horrendous ordeal and there is no doubt that others will have found themselves being similarly affected.
"An action has now been raised in court on the grounds of vicarious liability against both the local authority and the De La Salle Brothers."
East Lothian Council said it would be inappropriate to comment.
The De La Salle Brothers said: "As legal proceedings have commenced we are unable to comment at present. "
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel