Scotland: De La Salle Brother convicted a third time — decades of abuse at two List D schools

Proceedings

1. 2016-01-01 · third conviction; sentence stood

   Scotland (High Court of Justiciary / Sheriff Court). Michael Murphy, a De La Salle Brother known within the order as Brother Benedict, was convicted in 2016 of 29 offences of assault, indecent assault and indecent conduct against boys housed at St Joseph's School, Tranent (East Lothian) and St Ninian's List D School, Gartmore (Stirlingshire), and was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment. This was his third conviction: he was first convicted in 2003 (one year) for physical assaults at St Ninian's between 1960 and 1969, and the 2016 case covered a further course of physical and sexual abuse at St Joseph's from the 1970s to 1981. Twenty boys, some as young as seven or eight, were named in the 2016 prosecution.

Appellate history

1. 2003

   First conviction (one year) for physical assaults at St Ninian's, Gartmore, 1960s — recorded because the 2016 case is his second and heavier conviction for a separate course of abuse at a different institution.

Documented coercion mechanisms

• religious-order custody of boys in residential List D (approved) schools
• physical terror (beatings, electric shocks) suppressing disclosure
• isolation of institutionalised children from family and outside oversight