'Sadistic' former teacher spared jail for abusing girls

A RETIRED teacher guilty of the historical abuse of 18 girls at a former residential school has been spared jail.

- BY GRANT MCCABE

Justice... Fornethy House abuse survivors outside court following Robertson's conviction

Patricia Robertson tormented the youngsters at Fornethy House in Angus. The girls sent there for supposed "short-term respite" from their homes were force fed, assaulted, humiliated and left in tears.

One survivor told jurors: "I just wanted to curl up like a wee baby. I still do not understand how an adult could be like that."

Robertson, now 77, had denied the claims spanning between 1969 and 1984. She yesterday returned to the High Court in Glasgow having been convicted of 18 charges of cruel and unnatural treatment.

A large group of survivors and their families were in attendance.

Lord Colbeck said the offences had passed the "custody threshold" but added a prison sentence can only be imposed on someone who had never been in jail before if there was no appropriate alternative.