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<\/p>\nA former PE teacher has been ordered to carry out 300 hours of unpaid work for violent attacks on teenage pupils at a scandal-hit residential school in North Ayrshire.<\/p>\n
Michael Neil, 72, locked children in the gym hall and struck them with golf balls at the now-closed Kerelaw in Stevenston between 1991 and 2003.<\/p>\n
The ex-footballer, who played for Arbroath and Clyde, carried out so many attacks on pupils that a jury heard he could not even remember them.<\/p>\n
He is the latest former staff member to be convicted of offences at the school and will be supervised for two years.<\/p>\n
In 2024, Police Scotland declared a “critical incident” over the scale of its investigation into historical abuse allegations at Kerelaw.<\/p>\n
Neil, from Kilmarnock, was convicted of five offences against pupils aged between 13 and 17.<\/p>\n
A jury acquitted him of 11 other charges of assault.<\/p>\n
The offences took place at Kerelaw, a List D school near Stevenston that closed amid allegations of abuse in 2006.<\/p>\n
List D schools were residential institutions for children and young people who were sent there by courts or social work departments.<\/p>\n
One complainer – a man in his late 40s – told the BBC the practice of hitting pupils with equipment was called “human Space Invaders”.<\/p>\n
“All the boys would stand at the back of the hall, and I thought we’d be lining up to pick teams [for football],” he said.<\/p>\n
“The teacher would come out with a golf club and golf balls. All the boys would start running from side to side and he would then start hitting balls at us.<\/p>\n
“I thought, ‘No way, this can’t be happening’. The older boys said that it was normal, it happened all the time.”<\/p>\n
He said there was a culture of “fear” at the school during his time there in 1990s.<\/p>\n
“You could feel the tension… You always knew something could kick off at any point,” he said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Kerelaw residential school in Stevenston, North Ayrshire, closed in 2006 [PA Media]<\/p>\n
Det Ch Insp Neil Guy said the teacher had “subjected children, who were supposed to be in his care, to violent assaults to a degree that many feared for their safety whenever they went to school”.<\/p>\n
He continued: “I’d like to thank those survivors who came forward to us and reported what happened to them. Their cooperation and assistance has been instrumental in ensuring this conviction.”<\/p>\n
Council-run Kerelaw opened in 1970 and was run as a residential unit for boys before becoming co-educational. A mixed sex secure unit was added in 1983.<\/p>\n
The site catered for young people with complex behavioural, emotional and psychological needs. The main school closed in 2004 but the secure unit stayed open until 2006.<\/p>\n
Police Scotland said Neil was reported to the Crown Office in 2023 following the conviction of two other staff members for violent assaults and sexual abuse across three decades.<\/p>\n