A FORMER pupil of a residential school told a court yesterday how a
house parent repeatedly sexually abused her in her bedroom, his bedroom,
the common room, corridors, the shower, a hen house, and a hay barn.
When the girl, now 24, left Raddery School on the Black Isle in
Ross-shire aged almost 16, she had not told anyone of the events.
She told the jury at Dingwall Sheriff Court: ''I just tried to forget.
I had to go out into the real world and make a life for myself.
''I knew that if I told anyone outside they wouldn't believe me. I
wanted to be clean again.''
She said she had decided to come forward after reading in the press
that the house parent, Mr Adrian Batty, had been accused of offences
against girls at the school.
She said: ''When I saw his name I knew someone had been brave enough
to speak out.''
Mr Batty, 42, of Beechway, Forres, Moray, denies charges of indecent
practices towards five girls under the age of 16 at Raddery between 1983
and 1989.
He also denies having sexual intercourse with one of the girls.
Another witness, now 19, who had been at Raddery from the age of 11,
said she had not complained about his alleged indecency to her because
of an earlier court ordeal she had gone through when she was seven.
She said Mr Batty abused her on a ''weekly or monthly'' basis until
she left the school at 16.
She had not wanted to have anything to do with the case and had only
given evidence at the insistence of the procurator-fiscal.
When defence lawyer Neil Ramsay told her Mr Batty denied all the
allegations against him, the woman said: ''Everyone in that situation
says they didn't do it.''
The principal of Raddery, Mr David Dean, said the school was an
independent charitable trust founded by him in 1979 and was for
emotionally damaged children. There was a teacher-pupil ratio of almost
one to one.
He and his deputy had interviewed Mr Batty after allegations by two
girls came to light and he had tendered his resignation. In his letter
of resignation he had denied all the allegations and said he was leaving
to avoid an outside inquiry that would be damaging to the school and put
pressure on his own family.
The trial continues.
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