JOURNALIST and broadcaster Nicky Campbell has revealed he has suffered breakdowns because of abuse he suffered and witnessed while at school.
Campbell says one of those teachers is “evil” and “one of the worst predatory pedophiles this country has ever known” in a new documentary as hundreds of children could have faced abuse by the teacher.
That teacher, 83-year-old Iain Wares, has been accused by dozens of former pupils of molesting them at Edinburgh Academy and Fettes College in the 1960s and 1970s.
The claims are part of a new BBC Panorama documentary, which details Wares’ alleged abuse and also alleges complicity by schools in protecting him.
The documentary, titled ‘My Teacher the Abuser: Fighting for Justice’, details allegations against nearly 30 staff between the 1960s and the 1980s at Scottish private schools.
Campbell alleges being in the changing rooms at age 10 and seeing Wares “playing” with another student in front of the other boys, only several feet away from himself.
He says the “evil” behaviour of Iain Wares, which is also detailed by other survivors in the doc, is a “dark manifestation of the human condition”.
The BBC Radio 5 host also talks about abuse that he experienced at the hands of a different teacher, which has led to him suffering breakdowns.
“I’ve had some really difficult times. I’ve had a couple of breakdowns.
“I have a problem with being touched – unless I have total trust. That has been difficult,” he says.
The current rector of Edinburgh Academy, which has apologised for the abuse, says in the documentary complaints in the 1970s of “a number” of abuse allegations were now missing.
“If the school held those records and then chose to destroy them or conceal them… then that’s absolutely appalling,” rector Barry Welsh says.
The UK government is currently trying to extradite Wares from South Africa and the alleged pedophile faces over 80 charges of historical abuse.
Kim Wolfe Murray, a pupil at Edinburgh Academy from 1972 to 1979, said one of the first things he learned on arrival at the school was Wares’ nickname: ‘Weirdo Wares’.
Murray alleges Wares abused him in front of his class, sexually assaulting him.
“In that moment you feel very vulnerable,” Murray says.
Murray was one of the first students to report his abuse to his parents, who then raised it with the school in the 1970s.
“We were all being abused it was just an open thing.
“I just remember the showers being the place you don’t want to be.”
The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry heard earlier this year that both Edinburgh Academy and Fettes College, where Wares went on to teach, were warned that he was allegedly a sexual predator.
Wares eventually left Scotland for South Africa decades ago and currently faces charges of allegedly abusing a boy at a top private school in Cape Town in 1988.
He is set to face trial for indecent assault in South Africa in February 2024.
“Iain Wares is up there with Savile. We’ve done the maths.
“We’ve calculated it: his modus operandi, the number of people in the class, how frequently he did it,” Campbell has previously said.
Until recently Wares had been given the name “Edgar” after the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry passed an order banning the naming of individuals who have been accused but not convicted of abuse.
But after arguments from the media – and SNP MP Ian Blackford naming him in the House of Commons – the inquiry chair Lady Smith agreed to remove the anonymity.
My Teacher the Abuser: Fighting for Justice is set to air on BBC Panorama on Thursday night.
