A CATHOLIC monk carried out a catalogue of brutality and degrading abuse against pupils at a residential school during “a regime of fear”.

Michael Murphy, 82, was known as Brother Benedict or Brother Ben to children in his care at St Joseph’s List D School in Tranent, in East Lothian, where he perpetrated indecency and violence against youngsters.

Irish-born Murphy denied a string of charges against him during his trial at the High Court in Edinburgh.

But a jury convicted him of 15 charges of assault and indecent assault involving eight boys spanning the decade up to 1981. Murphy was acquitted of a further two charges.

Victims told his trial that he had laughed when administering electric shocks to boys using a hand-wound generator dubbed “The Tickler”. One boy had his hands burned and another lapsed into unconsciousness.

One pupil was locked in an unlit cupboard overnight and another was urinated on by the De La Salle brother.

Another former pupil at St Joseph’s described how he was painfully molested by Murphy during a sex attack.

Like some of the other troubled children placed in the school the effects of the abuse haunted his later life.

Another boy was subjected to a rape ordeal by the monk and an accomplice in the showers when he was aged 14 or 15. He was also warned that if he told anyone of the sexual abuse he would never see his parents again.

One former pupil said of the institution: “It was just run on a regime of fear.”

He was asked by advocate depute Paul Kearney if Brother Benedict had played a role in that regime and said: “He was the housemaster. You usually had to answer to him.”

He said boys attending a “club” at the school would be offered prizes, such as cigarettes, during an electrocution session with Brother Ben turning the handle on the device. “The person who could take the most punishment got the prize,” he said.

“Everyone in the group stood in a circle and held hands. That’s when the electricity was passed from one person to another,” he said.

He said it was presented as “a game with a prize at the end of it”. He told the court: “You didn’t want to look a coward.”

“It was like getting a wee shock off a plug. Then it would intensify the more it got turned. It was painful,” he said. He added: “Any time I ever brought it up I was told ‘don’t talk about these things’.”

One 59-year-old, who had been at the school as a boy of 14 and 15, told the court he was abused by a monk as he slept at a cottage in the grounds of the school.

“I used to wet the bed and Brother Ben would come in and put his hand under the covers to see if I was wet. He would feel my private bits,” he said.

A 57-year-old man told the court that he suffered a boyhood beating at the school that left him screaming as a belt was wielded on him. “The marks are still on my back today,” he said.

“You got that if you brought the school into disrepute, if you brought the police to the door,” he said.

One teenager who struck back against violence at the school was electric shocked until he blacked out.

He was asked by Murphy’s defence counsel, Peter Ferguson QC, how the electricity was applied to him and replied: “I couldn’t really tell you. All I felt was getting undressed, tied round my privates. The shocks were all over me, my head and my arms. It was like a stabbing sensation I was getting.”

Murphy, of Clayton Court, Rogate Road, Liss, Hampshire, who trained as a social worker, had maintained his innocence and told jurors: “I should not be here in this court at all. I have done nothing wrong in St Joseph’s.”

Under cross-examination by Mr Kearney, Murphy he said his nickname at the school had been “Bootsy”, but denied it was because he kicked boys with hobnail boots. He said it was because of a TV programme, Bootsy and Snudge.

The trial judge, Lord Uist, adjourned the proceedings after the jury returned its verdicts.A CATHOLIC monk carried out a catalogue of brutality and degrading abuse against pupils at a residential school during “a regime of fear”.

Michael Murphy, 82, was known as Brother Benedict or Brother Ben to children in his care at St Joseph’s List D School in Tranent, in East Lothian, where he perpetrated indecency and violence against youngsters.

Irish-born Murphy denied a string of charges against him during his trial at the High Court in Edinburgh.

But a jury convicted him of 15 charges of assault and indecent assault involving eight boys spanning the decade up to 1981. Murphy was acquitted of a further two charges.

Victims told his trial that he had laughed when administering electric shocks to boys using a hand-wound generator dubbed “The Tickler”. One boy had his hands burned and another lapsed into unconsciousness.

One pupil was locked in an unlit cupboard overnight and another was urinated on by the De La Salle brother.

Another former pupil at St Joseph’s described how he was painfully molested by Murphy during a sex attack.

Like some of the other troubled children placed in the school the effects of the abuse haunted his later life.

Another boy was subjected to a rape ordeal by the monk and an accomplice in the showers when he was aged 14 or 15. He was also warned that if he told anyone of the sexual abuse he would never see his parents again.

One former pupil said of the institution: “It was just run on a regime of fear.”

He was asked by advocate depute Paul Kearney if Brother Benedict had played a role in that regime and said: “He was the housemaster. You usually had to answer to him.”

He said boys attending a “club” at the school would be offered prizes, such as cigarettes, during an electrocution session with Brother Ben turning the handle on the device. “The person who could take the most punishment got the prize,” he said.

“Everyone in the group stood in a circle and held hands. That’s when the electricity was passed from one person to another,” he said.

He said it was presented as “a game with a prize at the end of it”. He told the court: “You didn’t want to look a coward.”

“It was like getting a wee shock off a plug. Then it would intensify the more it got turned. It was painful,” he said. He added: “Any time I ever brought it up I was told ‘don’t talk about these things’.”

One 59-year-old, who had been at the school as a boy of 14 and 15, told the court he was abused by a monk as he slept at a cottage in the grounds of the school.

“I used to wet the bed and Brother Ben would come in and put his hand under the covers to see if I was wet. He would feel my private bits,” he said.

A 57-year-old man told the court that he suffered a boyhood beating at the school that left him screaming as a belt was wielded on him. “The marks are still on my back today,” he said.

“You got that if you brought the school into disrepute, if you brought the police to the door,” he said.

He said of Brother Ben: “He thought it was really, really funny. He was heehawing and laughing.”

One teenager who struck back against violence at the school was electric shocked until he blacked out.

He was asked by Murphy’s defence counsel, Peter Ferguson QC, how the electricity was applied to him and replied: “I couldn’t really tell you. All I felt was getting undressed, tied round my privates. The shocks were all over me, my head and my arms. It was like a stabbing sensation I was getting.”

Murphy, of Clayton Court, Rogate Road, Liss, Hampshire, who trained as a social worker, had maintained his innocence and told jurors: “As a matter of fact I should not be here in this court at all. I have done nothing wrong in St Joseph’s.”

He said he had taken three vows of poverty, chastity and obedience and told the court: “I am a member of a religious order. I have never been involved in sexual abuse in my life with a man, woman or child.”

Under cross-examination by Mr Kearney, Murphy he said his nickname at the school had been “Bootsy”, but denied it was because he kicked boys with hobnail boots. He said it was because of a TV programme, Bootsy and Snudge.

The trial judge, Lord Uist, adjourned the proceedings after the jury returned its verdicts.