Laurell’s school operated with little oversight and abusers took full advantage of this
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Laurell grew up in an abusive home. When she was in her early teens she was sent to a small boarding school. It was privately owned by a couple, and was an approved school where some of the pupils were troubled children.
Laurell describes it as a closed institution, with physical and sexual abuse accepted as part of the punishment regime.
Certain boys were elevated to positions of power and allowed to drink and smoke on the premises. Some were invited back after they had left the school to teach there, even though they had no qualifications.
Other pupils were targeted for punishment by senior boys, who would abuse them physically and sexually.
In the early 90s one of the boys complained to the police about the headmaster. He was prosecuted and dismissed from his post, but continued to live nearby. Laurell believes he targeted many of the boys for physical or sexual abuse but the police didn’t investigate whether there were other victims.
A year or two after starting at the boarding school, Laurell became friendly with one of the former pupils, Mario, who had come back to teach. She got on well with him and says she ‘felt special’.
One day Mario climbed into her dormitory and began to have sex with her. She relates that she found it incredibly painful and asked him to stop but he ignored her. The abuse continued and she says she began to feel it was her ‘one true romantic relationship’.
But her abuser was unemotional and uncaring towards her. After he stopped abusing her, Laurell says she found life difficult and her last year at school went very badly.
Some years after she left school she became involved with the alumni page on social media. When details of the Jimmy Savile abuse became public, several former pupils began to open up about their own experiences at the boarding school. She says that some have taken their own lives since.
Laurell shared her own experiences and after a friend commented that what she had experienced was rape rather than sex, she decided to report it to the police. She opted to leave her statement on file in case other victims and survivors came forward.
By this time, the teacher who had abused her had been promoted, and other women mentioned they had been abused by him. They approached the police together. Mario was interviewed and charged with rape and sexual abuse, but he died before standing trial.
Laurell says the police were very supportive, but when the trial halted, her support also stopped.
She suffers from PTSD, panic attacks, flashbacks and depression and has thoughts of suicide because of the impact of the abuse.
She doesn’t believe anyone was aware of the abuse at the school because the headmaster was able to create a carefully controlled environment, with staff selected from former pupils – parents even gave permission for corporal punishment to be given.
Laurell would like there to be further investigation of abuse at her former school. She believes it was extensive and that many of the abused former pupils have not received any form of justice.
She would also like to see clearer processes for raising complaints of abuse with institutions or authorities, and support for victims and survivors to continue after the trial.