A former housemaster who assaulted and raped vulnerable children during a regime of brutality at a residential school has been jailed for 10 years.

Army veteran William Brydson, 78, inflicted years of cruelty on pupils while employed as head of care at Monken Hadley, latterly known as Woodlands School, in Newton Stewart, Dumfries and Galloway.

Brydson's offending - which included rape, indecent assault, assault to injury and assault - occurred between 1979 and 1986 and involved nine youngsters.

Judge Lady Poole said the victims were children who faced difficulties in their lives for various reasons.

She commended the now adults' bravery in giving evidence and having to relive experiences "from a very dark part of their lives".

Lady Poole branded Brydson's behaviour as "an appalling breach of trust", pointing out that two of the victims were girls who were underage when he began raping them.

The judge stated: "They were scared of the violence you might inflict on them."

Brydson was found guilty of 12 charges in December following a trial at the High Court in Kilmarnock.

He was convicted of two counts of rapes, five counts of indecent assault, four counts of assault to injury, and a single count of assault.

Years of brutality

Brydson's abuse included repeatedly punching and kicking one boy from the age of 10, grabbing him by the hair and forcing his face into a urine-soaked bed.

A second boy became the target for indecent assaults when he was 14 and Brydson would watch him showering and painfully hit him on the buttocks with a towel.

A third boy was abused from the age of 11, which included being grabbed by the neck, struck with a knife handle, beaten with a stick and pushed down stairs.

The youngster was a shut in a cellar and left to sit naked on a stone step.

Brydson also pushed the boy's face into food and forced him to eat until he was sick, and then eat the vomit.

Another boy was also attacked from the age of 11 at the school and at an address in Paisley, Renfrewshire.

The youngster was struck and punched on the head and kicked and stamped on the body.

Brydson shouted, swore and threatened the boy, grabbed him by the throat and made him take part in boxing matches with other pupils.

One girl was repeatedly preyed on from the age of 15. She was raped at the school and in a nearby woodland.

Brydson also dragged the victim by her hair and struck her head against a wall.

A second girl was also molested and raped by him at the school and in a car, while another girl was indecently assaulted.

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Brydson was previously jailed for two years in 2003 for physically abusing children at the school, although his sentence was cut to nine months on appeal.

Brydson, of Nairn in the Scottish Highlands, was handed the 10-year jail sentence at the High Court in Edinburgh on Wednesday.

He was also placed on the sex offenders' register indefinitely.

'Lives shattered and scarred'

Faye Cook, procurator fiscal for high court sexual offences, said: "The conviction of William Brydson lays bare the horrific abuse suffered by vulnerable children at Monken Hadley and Woodlands School.

"What these young people endured was not only criminal - it was a devastating abuse of trust that should never have happened.

"As a house master and head of care, he held a position meant to protect and nurture. Instead, he used it to inflict repeated physical and sexual abuse, leaving lives shattered and scarred."

(c) Sky News 2026: Former housemaster jailed for historical abuse of children at Dumfries and Galloway school