Nicky Campbell tells Inquiry of "Saville Scale" Historic Abuse at Edinburgh Private School

A seasoned broadcaster and public speaker - but the weight of the moment was clearly felt by Nicky Campbell, recounting his experiences of abuse at the prestigious private school.

As he described the awful detail of alleged sexual assaults carried out by school staff during his time as a pupil at the Edinburgh Academy, fellow survivors in the public gallery were brought to tears.

"People are actually listening, the police are listening, the inquiry are listening, the institutions where it happened - if they’re still around - are willing to listen."

Campbell’s high profile has been credited with helping shine a light on what happened, and encouraging others to come forward:

Giles Moffat is the co-founder - alongside Nicky Campbell - of Edinburgh Academy Survivors, he said “If Nicky’s done anything beyond what he’s done for our group, which was to bring us together and give us a focal point, he’s raised awareness of this Inquiry.”

“I hope that people who were abused in other forms of care will realise now that if you come and speak up, people are actually listening, the police are listening, the inquiry are listening, the institutions where it happened - if they’re still around - are willing to listen.”

“There’s an acceptance now that actually, the best way to deal with this is to confront it, not deny it as it has been in the past.”

“There was one point when you came home and you’d changed - you didn’t like anyone touching you”

Campbell told the Inquiry, chaired by Lady Smith, of an atmosphere of “toxic masculinity” at the school during his time there, something he put down to “very violent teachers”. He said parents would rarely - if ever - be informed of concerns held by pupils as “we couldn’t process it, we couldn’t understand it”.

He recalled an incident where - aged around ten - one teacher had leant over the back of one of his friends during class and sexually assaulted him.

The Inquiry heard of another teacher, whom Campbell claimed would regularly place pupils over his desk and tickle them, before drawing pictures on their inner thigh with a felt pen and sexually assaulting them. He said the teacher “gave you a jelly bean afterwards, or a fun-sized mars bar”.

Campbell recalled this happening to him, after which he remembered running home to wash it off before his parents saw it. He said the incident had a memorable impact on him, changing how he interacted with others, recounting a conversation he later had with his sister who told him “there was one point when you came home and you’d changed - you didn’t like anyone touching you”.

"This is Saville Scale”

A pivotal moment for Edinburgh Academy Survivors, Nicky Campbell was defiant - but emotional - as he worked through his 36 page statement before Lady Smith.

But the brunt of his anger was reserved for a former teacher he claims is “one of the most prolific paedophiles in British criminal history”, and the failure to extradite Iain Wares, now in his 80s, to face prosecution.

“Due to the ineptitude of the Crown Office, the Procurator Fiscal Service, he’s living in a retirement complex in South Africa, with a very tricky and expensive lawyer - delaying, delaying, delaying. This is Saville Scale.”

"I said to my friends who came forward and eventually spoke in detail about what happened to them. Some of these guys, and guys who don’t want to be on camera, I’ve said ‘how often did it happen?’, and they said ‘every day’”.

The Crown say they won't be commenting at this stage "to preserve the rights of complainers" and to "protect any future proceedings".

The Edinburgh Academy has previously said: “Schools should be safe places for everyone and, at various points in our history, this was not the case for too many of our pupils. They were wronged by specific individuals whose roles were to educate, protect and nurture them. For this the Edinburgh Academy unreservedly apologises.

“We recognise that abuse during childhood has wide-ranging consequences for that individual throughout their life and we are fully committed to supporting our former pupils and helping in the investigations into accusations of historical abuse. Given the seriousness of these matters, we believe it's right that we give our views to the inquiry in the first instance and reserve any detailed comment for an appropriate time when its work has progressed.

“The Edinburgh Academy thanks those members of our community who have come forward and assisted the SCAI with its proceedings. This will have been an incredibly difficult undertaking and we applaud their courage in doing so.”