A victim of an evil Fornethy ‘House of Horrors‘ teacher has blasted her as a “vile liar” after she accused victims of inventing their abuse claims.
Depraved Patricia Robertson, also known as Baxter, 77, vehemently denied her crimes as she gave evidence at the child abuse inquiry in Edinburgh yesterday afternoon. The retired teacher, who was branded “sadistic” by a judge, was convicted of a catalouge of sickening abuse against girls, some as young as six, at the residential school in Kilry, Angus, last year.
Survivor Sharon Cruden, 60, was battered “black and blue” by Robertson during her six-week stay at the school, which was run by Glasgow Corporation – formerly known as Glasgow City Council – in 1974. The then nine-year-old was promised a “summer holiday” at the facility in the north-east of Scotland, but was met with beatings, force feeding and humiliation on arrival.
View 5 ImagesSurvivor Sharon Cruden(Image: Daily Record)
Speaking to the Record, she said: “For Robertson to have any platform to deny her crimes is appalling. This woman is an evil, vile liar and should have been jailed.
“She is making a mockery of the justice system and us as survivors. We are all trying to heal and move on but we simply cannot close this traumatic chapter in our lives if it is constantly being reopened.
“She has absolutely no empathy for her crimes against innocent children under her care. Robertson has made our entire lives a misery and reigned terror on us, yet here she is outright lying in front of the nation to make herself look like the victim instead.
“I will never understand how this pathetic excuse for a human being sleeps at night.”
Robertson avoided a jail term after she was found guilty of 18 charges of cruel and unnatural treatment of the youngsters following a trial at the High Court in Glasgow. Instead, she was placed on probation involving being supervised for three years and was ordered to pay her 18 victims compensation of £1,000 each.
She was also subject to a restriction of liberty order keeping her at home between 3pm and midnight for the next 12 months. Her offences included delivering punishments for wetting the bed, force-feeding, banging girls’ heads together and dragging children by their hair.
View 5 ImagesRecord coverage of the case
We previously told how Sharon wished for her abuser to die in jail after she denied any wrongdoing in court.
She said: “This witch should have died in jail. She is a shameful monster and she can’t hide away from what she’s done.”
Another survivor who was present at Lady Smith’s inquiry confronted Robertson as she left the venue on West Register Street. Violet Duffy, who was only nine years old when she suffered cruel treatment by Baxter in 1970, branded her former teacher as a “liar” as her taxi pulled away.
She houted at her saying: “You lied, every word of it was a lie – you’re a liar.”
View 5 ImagesViolet Duffy, who was a victim of Robertson at Forbethy House in 1970(Image: PA)
Ms Duffy had just been telling the probe how she had been dealing with the impact of Robertson’s abuse “her whole life”. She said she was the first to go to the police with allegations of mental and physical abuse at Fornethy House.
Baxter spent more than an hour giving evidence to the inquiry, where she claimed the victims had invented their claims of abuse for financial gain. The inquiry’s senior counsel, Colin MacAulay KC, asked her about an incident where five girls were physically punished at Fornethy House for collecting frogs.
There were outraged comments from the women watching the proceedings as Robertson claimed the events did not take place. Lady Smith put it to the pensioner that the evidence of abuse did not only come from the children, but from a student teacher who was also at Fornethy.
View 5 ImagesRobertson in the back of a black taxi after giving evidence at the child abuse inquiry(Image: PA)
Robertson replied: “I feel my memory is correct.”
She she stood by her evidence, insisting Fornethy House had a “warm, friendly and happy” culture, prompting scoffs of derision from the women watching. Robertson is the only teacher to be convicted of the sickening crimes that took place at Fornethy House.
All other perpetrators are believed to be dead. The abuse on young girls took place at the facility between 1969 and 1984.
Glasgow City Council apologised to victims of Fornethy House in 2024.
Speaking on behalf of the council at the time, leader Susan Aitken, said: “I want to say sorry for any abuse suffered by any children who attended Fornethy House.”
The building of Fornethy House, described as a “shrine to abuse” by survivors, now lies in a state of decay.
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