Man, 82, jailed for sexually abusing boys at East Lothian residential school
An 82-year-old man who physically and sexually abused boys in his care at a residential school has been jailed for seven years.
Michael Murphy, known as Brother Benedict or Brother Ben, betrayed the trust placed in him to carry out the abuse in the 1970s and 1980s when he worked at St Joseph’s School in Tranent, East Lothian.
Retired Murphy – who was a member of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian schools, also known as the De La Salle Brotherhood – abused victims as young as 12, prosecutors said.
He was jailed at the High Court in Edinburgh on Friday, where a judge told him: “It has taken a long time for justice to catch up with you but the day of reckoning has now arrived.”
A jury at the court earlier found Murphy, from Liss in Hampshire, guilty of physically and sexually abusing eight boys during a “contemptible course of criminal conduct”.
The school, where Murphy worked for more than 16 years, catered for children unable to be accommodated in mainstream education.
The physical abuse he carried out included habitual and sustained physical punishment as well as the administration of electric shocks, the Crown Office said at the conclusion of the case.
Passing sentence, judge Lord Uist told him: “You have been convicted by the jury of a contemptible course of criminal conduct consisting of the physical and sexual abuse of eight boys in your care during the years when you worked at St Joseph’s School, Tranent.
“The crimes … consisted of particularly abhorrent and despicable sexual abuse of two boys.
“In behaving as you did, you betrayed the trust reposed in you as a guardian of those boys and flouted your religious calling.
“I do not know what caused you to treat those boys, who have clearly all been damaged to varying extents by what they suffered at your hands, in such a cruel manner.
“Your continued denial of these crimes shows that you have no remorse or regret.”
The court heard Murphy also had a previous conviction for 10 earlier assaults on boys when he worked at St Ninian’s School, Gartmore, near Stirling, between 1960 and 1969 which resulted in a 12-month jail sentence.
He has now been placed on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely.
Details of the judge’s sentencing statement were released following the case by the Judicial Office for Scotland.
Kenny Donnelly, High Court procurator fiscal for the East of Scotland, said afterwards: “The actions of Michael Murphy have devastated the lives of many and left permanent mental scars on his vulnerable victims.
“He was trusted and respected by the community he served while all along was abusing his position to satisfy his depraved needs.
“Thanks to the incredible bravery of his victims in coming forward to report what happened to them, it has been possible for us to bring him to face the full force of the law for his despicable crimes.”
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