'Aggressive' former head teacher jailed for horrific abuse of school boys

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A former residential school head teacher has been jailed for a campaign of physical and sexual abuse of pupils at two now-closed schools in the rural Stirling area.Gregor Dougal, now 73, was found guilty back in September after a six-day trial of four charges of assault and two of indecent assault against boys in his care at St Ninian’s “List D” School, near Aberfoyle, Perthshire, and Ballikinrain residential school near Balfron, Stirlingshire.After a series of delays during which he spent time on bail being assessed by his doctor for dementia, he was jailed for 18 months this week.Dougal was deputy head of education at St Ninian’s, which closed in 1982, and was run by the De La Salle Brothers, a Roman Catholic order of monks, and went on to be head of education at Ballikinrain, which was run by the Church of Scotland.He was suspended after allegations about his conduct were raised.

Ballikinrain shut its doors for good in 2021.A court heard that “aggressive”, “impulsive” and “intimidating” Dougal targeted two boys who were at St Ninian’s in the 70s together with four boys who were at Ballikinrain more than 20 years ago.Prosecutor Michael Sweeney said that during the trial, “a string of damaged men came forward to provide powerful accounts of how they were attacked and treated by Mr Dougal at these schools when he was a teacher there”.One former pupil at the remote St Ninians boarding school told how he was knocked unconscious by a blow on the head from Dougal who pursued him with a car as he tried to run.The victim, who was aged between nine and 12 at the time, said: “Mr Dougal had his hand out the window and the next thing I knew he’d hit me on the back of the head.”Another pupil said Dougal, who taught English, music