VINDICATED

Nicky Campbell tells how he wept in wife's arms after sheriff ruled victims spoke truth about sadist teacher

BROADCASTER Nicky Campbell broke down in tears yesterday after a cruel teacher was found to have abused him and 29 others over 20 years and declared: "We have been vindicated."

John Brownlee regularly assaulted children with various implements including a wooden paddle called a clacken, a snooker cue and a golf club while he taught at the capital's Edinburgh Academy.

The brute, now 89, also choked several young boys and ordered them to sit in freezing cold baths and punished them by making them dig in a garden without the proper clothing in cold weather, all between 1967 and 1987.

The evil pensioner was deemed unfit to stand trial due to ill health and an examination of facts hearing had been held at Edinburgh Sheriff Court over the previous two weeks.

Presenter Nicky, 62, said: "Today, I have been a 10-year-old boy again, I have been weeping in my wife's arms.

"Those memories of him are still with me, they come to me in the night. They are with others too.