Police Scotland have confirmed they carried out an investigation into historic sexual abuse at Glasgow’s prestigious St Aloysius’ College.
A former pupil, now in his 60s, claims he was sexually abused over two and a half years by two Jesuit priests, and physically abused by another Jesuit and also by a lay teacher.
All but one of the four men alleged to have been responsible for the abuse have since died, although officers interviewed the survivor, who now lives in England. They also spoke to one of the other men before he died.
Police Scotland said they had investigated the claims but due to a lack of corroboration, a report was not made to the procurator fiscal.
Now a lawyer acting on behalf of the man is appealing for other former pupils to come forward if they witnessed or experienced abuse.
The alleged victim, identified only as Andrew, who is 64, said the abuse had largely consisted of being required to perform sex acts on one of the priests. The physical abuse had been provoked when he had informed another priest what was happening, and was beaten himself in response, he says.
He told the Sunday Mail: “I went to one of the priests and said that another had touched me under my shorts but unfortunately he stuck me in to the others. I was summoned and given nine lashes on the bare back, bottom and legs.”
Patrick McGuire, a partner with Thompsons solicitors which is representing Andrew, said his story was powerful and compelling, adding: “We will do everything in our power to obtain justice for him.”
However Mr McGuire said his case would be greatly strengthened if any other survivors of abuse at St Aloysius’ College were to corroborate his claims. “We are today encouraging any other survivors of abuse St Aloysius’ who have not yet come forward to now do so,” he said.
St Aloysius’ College told the Sunday Mail: “The college has clear and robust safeguarding procedures in place to protect the safety and wellbeing of our pupils.”
A spokeswoman for Police Scotland said: “We can confirm officers received a report in 2017 of historical sexual abuse on a 64-year-old man, which occurred in the 1960s at St Aloysius’ School. Inquiries were carried out, however, there was insufficient evidence to report to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.”
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