A brave mum who fought to have the teacher who abused her jailed has hit out after he was released from prison early.
Carol Burns reported depraved William Wright, who abused her and other schoolgirls. Wright was jailed for four years in 2018 for abusing female pupils and was given a further 20 months behind bars over Carol’s case in 2021.
The 20-month sentence only began when the four-year prison stretch came to an end. Wright, 82, failed in a bid to be granted parole last year.
But another bid this year was successful and saw him released from jail last month. Carol, 50, says he should still be behind bars for the abuse at Eastwood High School, in Newton Mearns, near Glasgow.
She said: “It’s appalling that he didn’t even spend half his sentence in jail, especially after last year when the parole board said he was still a threat and showed no remorse. What’s changed?
"I’m still so angry. I just can’t believe it. Eight months is no deterrent for someone like him and no rehabilitation can be done in that time.
“We are going to see an increase in assaults as there is no punishment. Even if he stays in his house it’s still not right. He should have died in jail. I worry other people haven’t come forward because of things like this.
“I think if they’ve seen and heard the injustice and stress they’ve thought, rightly, ‘Is it worth it?’ I wouldn’t have come forward if I’d known. It’s been too upsetting. It makes me physically sick. I think the justice system is shocking.”
Carol, a secretary, also worries about new victims now that Wright, of Elderslie, Renfrewshire, is out of prison.
She said: “What if a family has moved in beside his house and they have girls? That whole street should know there is a paedophile there. He might be old but it won’t stop him leering and trying to talk to them.”
Wright was charged with abusing Carol and two other girls and went on trial in 2021. After one of the women, who is now 49, gave evidence, Wright pled guilty to abusing her from 1985 to 1990, when she was aged 11 to 16.
The court heard Wright abused her more than 100 times in her first year of secondary school, and more than 1000 times in total while she was at the school. The charges involving Carol and the other woman were dropped as part of a plea deal.
The four-year sentence he received in 2018 was for abusing pupils between 1974 and 1981.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “Sentencing in any given case is always a matter for the independent parole board, which considers each case on its own merit considering all relevant factors and with public safety being at the forefront of any decision-making process.”
The Parole Board for Scotland was contacted for comment.
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