The Kerelaw Scandal

Police Trawling - The actions of Strathclyde Police in the prosecutions at Kerelaw School

Police launched an investigation into allegations of abuse in 2004, following a social work investigation carried out by Glasgow City Council. The method that was employed by the police to find 'victims' is called trawling. This controversial practice has been under fire by MP's and hopefully it will soon become a thing of the past.

In John and Matt's case, the police started to gather names of ex-pupils and contacted them asking if they knew anything about the two men or if the men had done anything to them when they were still at Kerelaw. In some cases the police went back to these 'victims' two and three times until they got the answers they were looking for. This was an open invitation for these 'victims' to make false allegations for their own ends, whether that was for compensation or to get back at someone for something as trivial as being told off.

When interviewing 'victims' police would often write down things that were not said by the 'victim'. The police twisted what was said to make it look like a corroborating statement for others and none of the interviews or questions that the police asked 'victims' were recorded, though there is now a campaign of sorts to get this changed.

Statements were often unread and unsigned and, when the statements were signed, the police often added bits at the end. This additional text could be as much as one to two pages long and the content focused on corroboration with other statements. The excuse the police gave for this in court was that they were only trying to make the statements easier for the jury to understand. The reason for making the statements corroborate with each other was that, when it came to the actual trial, they had a better chance of conviction under the Moorov Doctrine. This is an article of law that states that if two or more people say similar things within a certain time scale, then it must be true.

So far a further 11 people have been charged and police are looking for more 'victims' of sexual abuse.