Five charged with boarding school assaults

A Lancashire man is among five charged with assault at a former boarding school.
File photo dated 18/11/11 of police tape at a crime scene, as the Office for National Statistics said that there was a 16% fall in the number of crimes against households and adults in England and Wales in the year to June 2014. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Issue date: Thursday October 16, 2014. See PA story CRIME Figures. Photo credit should read: Dave Thompson/PA WireFile photo dated 18/11/11 of police tape at a crime scene, as the Office for National Statistics said that there was a 16% fall in the number of crimes against households and adults in England and Wales in the year to June 2014. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Issue date: Thursday October 16, 2014. See PA story CRIME Figures. Photo credit should read: Dave Thompson/PA Wire
File photo dated 18/11/11 of police tape at a crime scene, as the Office for National Statistics said that there was a 16% fall in the number of crimes against households and adults in England and Wales in the year to June 2014. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Issue date: Thursday October 16, 2014. See PA story CRIME Figures. Photo credit should read: Dave Thompson/PA Wire

The alleged historical offences are said to have taken place at Underley Hall School in Kirkby Lonsdale.

Cumbria Police said the charges were part of its Operation Tweed investigation - launched in July 2014 - into reports of non-recent abuse in residential schools in the south of the county.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Errol Mayer, 72, of New Road, Kirkby Lonsdale, is accused of 18 counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and 10 counts of child cruelty.

John Studley, 64, of Maryland Close, Silverdale, Lancashire; Frederick Taylor, 74, of Lower Park Royd Drive, Sowerby Bridge, Calderdale; James Farish, 57, of Oakwood, Kendal, Cumbria, and David Hadwin, 70, of Raygarth Road, Kirkby Lonsdale, have each been charged with one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

A police spokeswoman said: “All five have been bailed to appear at South Cumbria Magistrates’ Court on February 15.”

Underley Hall was an independent residential school for boys with behavioural difficulties which opened in 1976 and closed in 2012.