BBC presenter and broadcaster Nicky Campbell has revealed the sickening sexual abuse he witnessed as a child at an Edinburgh school.
Making the announcement on his BBC podcast, released on Wednesday, he also speaks with journalist Alex Renton on the endemic abuse in Britain's public schools. Nicky said his experiences from the age of ten have had a long-lasting impact on his adult life, reports the Daily Record.
Nicky said that the abuse began in 1971 at Edinburgh Academy. While returning from a rugby match on a bitterly cold day, he said that a teacher performed a sex act on one of his friends, but they didn't even speak about it after school, saying the teacher was "known for it."
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He said: "We just accept it because if he is doing it then it can’t be that wrong can it? And at least he wasn’t doing it while in one of his violent rages. Fifty-one years later, my wife Tina, calls to me from the kitchen where she’s listening to Radio 4.
“There’s a programme on about child abuse in private schools and they’ve just mentioned the Edinburgh Academy. I go as far away from the kitchen as I can, upstairs to my study. I feel cold and scared and I want to make myself small and invisible.
"I wonder who is talking about my old school, shocked even all these years down the line, that someone might be speaking out about what we experienced."
Nicky said that the teacher in question was well known for his violence and the whole class had witnessed him nearly blinding students when he hurled a chalk duster directly at a student's face. He also said he was beaten while attending the school as a child.
He said that his mum, although she was furious, was ultimately "stonewalled." For the rest of his school career, he was seen as trouble. Nicky continued: "An image of our history teacher, Mr Dawson [who is dead] comes to mind, putting me – and others – over his knee in mirthful moments where, behind the laughter of the class, he’d tickle, his fingers wandering over my genitals."
Nicky said that the abuser, referred to as 'Edgar' is reportedly still alive, much to his surprise. Alex Renton, a journalist and campaigner also suffered abuse as a child and was aware of the man to which Campbell referred to. He added: “He’s living a happy retirement abroad with his wife. There are numerous allegations against him but they can’t get him back to British soil. It’s proving impossible to extradite him.”
Nicky added: "You went up to his desk with your jotter, one after the other, lesson on lesson, to have his hand in your shorts and then in your underpants – that it went essentially unremarked upon by so many of us at the time. We just let it happen.
“I recall so many details about him vividly: His voice, his breath, the way he sat, even the brown jacket and pink shirt he was wearing. But it’s the absolute nearness of him I remember most, he was almost on top of you, he drew you to him.
“I know and you know that they knew what was going on. I don’t know because I never did, but had I confided in my parents, would they have believed me? We were 10 years old. 10 years old!”
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