A 77-year-old retired teacher has been convicted of abusing 18 girls at a former residential school in Scotland.
During her time at Forenthy House in Angus, Patricia Robertson tormented the girls, who were sent there for supposed ‘short-term respite’ from their homes.
Instead, they were force fed, assaulted, humiliated and left in tears.
One survivor told jurors, ‘I just wanted to curl up like a wee baby. I still do not understand how an adult could be like that.’
Robertson had denied the accusations during a trial at the High Court in Glasgow.
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She accepted having a ‘strong voice’ when dealing with the girls, but insisted she was not violent or bullied them.
The pensioner was convicted of a total of 18 charges of cruel and unnatural treatment of the youngsters between January 1969 and August 1984.
A large group of women affected by the abuse at Fornethy were in court for the verdict.
They cheered and hugged as the verdict was read, and left the court room building together.
Fornethy had been run by the former Glasgow Corporation and latterly Strathclyde Regional Council.
It was said to offer ‘convalescent care’ for girls aged between five and 12 for up to eight weeks at a time.
One now woman recalled a ‘Miss Robertson’, who she believed was a teacher, who forced-fed her semolina, which she had been struggling to swallow.
The witness: ‘I remember Robertson was over at the other table and she came over to me shouting and bawling. She was saying: ‘You need to eat. It is good for you’.
‘I was like: ‘I do not like it’. The next minute, I got my hair pulled back and the spoon was put down my throat. She just would not let go.’
The girl then claimed she was made to stand in a corner of the room, facing away from others.
She remembers this sort of incident would ‘happen to everyone’.
She claimed this sort of thing happened more than once, also when she refused to eat blancmange.
The woman alleged she was also hit during a latter stay at Fornethy while helping scrub floors.
The woman said her clothing was grabbed tightly and she struggled to breathe.
She was pulled back and forward ‘like a rag doll’ before ending up on the floor on her knees.
Another survivor described the atmosphere at Fornethy as being ‘scary, cold, unloved’.
She added: ‘You would be able to write letters (for family), but only what they dictated and you had to copy that.’
Many other girls suffered similar ordeals.
Robertson targeted one youngster who was slapped, punched and had a blackboard duster hurled at her.
One child was put over Robertson’s knee and slapped on the bare buttocks.
Robertson, now of Essex, gave evidence during the trial.
She will be sentenced in December, but Judge Lord Colbeck granted her bail meantime.
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