A FORMER pupil at a special children's unit was put on probation for a year and ordered to perform 200 hours of community service after lying about being sexually abused by his headmaster.
Former pupil Ronald Pindel, now 20, went to the press with false allegations against Mr Ian Thom, accusing him of molesting him five years ago.
Mr Thom, now retired, was suspended from his post after Pindel claimed that he abused him in the shower of Howdenhall Children's Unit in Edinburgh - a home for young people placed there by the children's panel.
But after a police investigation, Pindel broke down and admitted that he had invented the allegations in a bid for revenge.
He said Mr Thom had disciplined and restrained him on several occasions and he had lied about the sex abuse to get back at him.
Edinburgh Sheriff Court heard that the headmaster suffered a nightmare when he was suspended from his job while the investigation was carried out.
Pindel admitted the lie in a taped police interview because he felt Mr Thom ''had suffered enough'', Sheriff James Taylor heard.
DC Lorna Weir, 31, told depute-fiscal depute Carolyn McLeod that she had been ordered to concentrate on Pindel's allegations.
After a month, Pindel first changed his statement saying that he had been molested in his bedroom rather than the shower and then admitted he had made the whole story up.
Before admitting the truth Pindel went to the press and an article focusing on his allegations appeared in the Scotsman newspaper. He told a reporter that he had come forward after reading stories about other cases of sex abuse in children's homes.
Solicitor John Scott admitted that the headmaster had gone through a nightmare, but said that the accused was vulnerable and suffered himself.
Pindel, who was in care at different children's units from the ages of 12 to 16, admitted that he had sworn at and disobeyed Mr Thom.
Pindel, unemployed, of West Pilton Avenue, Edinburgh, was found guilty of falsely alleging that he had been indecently assaulted and wasting police time.
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