The BBC presenter Nicky Campbell revealed in an emotional interview that he suffered abuse as a young student in the 1970s at a Scottish private school.
The 61-year-old presenter recalled that when he was 12 years old, his history instructor “placed me and others over his knee in amusing moments where, behind the laughing of the class, he’d tickle, his fingers straying over my genitals.”
The violence he saw and observed at Edinburgh Academy “had a huge influence on my life,” according to the longtime host of BBC 5 Live Breakfast, whose voice frequently broke as he described his experiences on his podcast.
He identified the teacher as Hamish Dawson, who has since passed away.
Campbell also detailed seeing multiple additional abuse incidents, including one in 1971 when, at the age of 10, he watched a PE teacher attack a young student in the showers—something the offender was “known for” among pupils.
Campbell recalled, “My friend is laughing, but I can tell from the anxiety in it that it’s not a happy laugh.”
“The teacher is masturbating my friend with both hands on his penis.” We don’t even discuss it while walking to the bus stop, and we would never tell.
According to Campbell, 61, who wrote in the Mirror, the in issue instructor has more than 20 child abuse claims against him as part of the current Scottish Child Abuse Enquiry.
He said that extraditing him would be challenging because he is now married and residing abroad.
The man, known only as “Edgar,” is suspected of abusing numerous young boys at multiple schools in Edinburgh and his native South Africa.
For legal reasons, his true identity has not been made public.
We simply accepted it because, if he is doing it, it can’t possibly be wrong, right?
At least he wasn’t acting violently when he was doing it, Campbell wrote.
Campbell, who was raised in Edinburgh and attended Edinburgh Academy before enrolling at the University of Aberdeen, also talked about his experiences with physical abuse at the hands of instructors.
He told BBC 5 Live, “I was severely beaten up at school by a teacher who was a big light in the scripture union.”
“My mother pursued it as far as she could and managed to obtain a grovelling apology from (the involved man), but she was virtually stonewalled and the school hushed the matter up.
It has stayed with me my entire life that those were different times.
Campbell also spoke about seeing reportedly more severe sexual abuse of his classmates at the institution by a different individual.
He will confess to 5 Live that “I cannot articulate it here and I can never un-see it.”
“We all knew this man was a sadist and a predator, but we never told anyone.”
My schoolmates and I are discussing it right now with disgust, astonishment, and incomprehension.
That something of the like could have happened in plain sight and nothing had been done.
“And why didn’t we as young boys inform anyone in authority what was going on?” I’m not sure.
The presenter claimed it had a “deep influence on my life” to see instances of both sexual and physical abuse at the Edinburgh Academy.
Campbell said: “I cannot articulate it here and I can never un-see it” while describing the alleged torture he allegedly witnessed in a locker room shower.
“We all knew this man was a sadist and a predator, but we never told anyone.”
My schoolmates and I are discussing it right now with disgust, astonishment, and incomprehension that something of the like could have happened in plain sight and nothing had been done.
“And why didn’t we as young boys inform anyone in authority what was going on?” I’m not sure.
The accused abuser is still alive, but has not been identified for legal reasons, according to Campbell, who collaborated with journalist and child sex abuse victim Alex Renton to tell his story.
Speaking on his own podcast, Campbell claims that the pursuit of justice is the driving force behind his decision to come forward.
Edinburgh Academy issued a statement to the BBC expressing its “deep regret” for the alleged incidents and its “wholehearted” regret to those involved.
The statement read, “We would like to provide reassurance that things have dramatically changed since the 1970s and have worked closely with the relevant authorities including Police Scotland with their inquiries.”
“The Academy has strong safeguards in place to protect students at the school, and child protection training is now central to the Academy’s culture.”
Following a flurry of revelations regarding the heinous abuse of minors, the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services, and Skills (Ofsted) declared in June of last year that schools throughout Britain must “assume” that staff members are sexually abusing students.
It happened at the same time as allegations of multiple incidents of student sexual assault against a second South African teacher who taught in southern England schools between the 1970s and 1990s.
Between 1970 and 1990, David Price is accused of abusing ten boys sexually, with 33 of those allegations allegedly occurring at Ashdown House School in East Sussex, where Prime Minister Boris Johnson attended.
In November 2018, the British government asked that he be sent back there to face justice.
However, the ex-attorneys teacher’s contend that because of Brexit, there is no extradition treaty between the two countries.
From 1970 through the 1980s, Price taught history, geography, and sports at Ashdown.
There, Mr. Johnson attended school from 1975 to 1977. He is not one of the alleged victims, it is not suggested. In 1976, his sister Rachel became the school’s first female boarder.
The three Cs — cane, cricket, and classics — were obsessively pursued back then, according to her.
After that, Price worked at Brockhurst School in Berkshire in the 1980s and 1990s, where he is now accused of nine additional crimes.
All of the alleged offences involve sexual touching, engaging in sexual activity with minors, or having minors engage in sexual activity with him.
Later, he relocated to his home South Africa, where he spent ten years teaching at a school for the deaf until retiring. During that time, one of his students put him in for the national Woolworths Teacher of the Year award, which he went on to win.
After retiring for a year, he got bored and started tutoring kids privately until his arrest in November 2019 as a result of a request from the British government.
You can listen to Different With Nicky Campbell on BBC Sounds.