By Jonathan Ferreira
Dawn Crawford and Michelle Kilpatrick waited more than 20 years for justice after a legal failure allowed the man who abused them at a Scottish boarding school to avoid accountability. William Brydson, head of care at Monken Hadley in Dumfries and Galloway, preyed on vulnerable children during the late 1970s and 1980s. When he was first prosecuted in 2003, serious sexual abuse charges were dropped after prosecutors missed court deadlines, described at the time as a catalogue of blunders. Brydson admitted physical assault and served a reduced sentence, leaving survivors feeling ignored and dismissed.
Last week, that long delay ended when Brydson, now 78, was sentenced to 10 years in prison after being convicted of multiple historical sexual offences, including rape. New evidence led to the fresh prosecution, which found him guilty of abusing nine children between 1979 and 1986. Dawn and Michelle, who waived their right to anonymity, described a regime of fear, violence and sexual abuse at the school, where troubled children were subjected to harsh discipline and nightly assaults. Both women say the trauma has shaped their adult lives, leaving lasting mental health scars and broken relationships.
Although the sentence brought a sense of vindication, neither survivor feels it can ever fully compensate for decades of suffering. They say many former pupils did not live to see justice, and they continue to speak out on their behalf. Prosecutors have acknowledged past failures and said lessons must be learned in handling historical child abuse cases. Monken Hadley, now demolished, is also under scrutiny as part of the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry. For Dawn and Michelle, the conviction confirms they were finally believed, but the impact of what happened to them remains deeply ingrained and lifelong.
