THE UK’S ‘MOST PROLIFIC PEDOPHILE’ – THE CAPE TOWN CONNECTION
by Nicky Campbell
The latest chapter in the long-awaited report into abuse at Scottish boarding schools has confirmed that Cape Town resident and self-confessed pedophile Iain Wares, sexually and physically abused prepubescent boys on an unprecedented scale. It is now clear that he offended on thousands of occasions in his 12 years teaching in Scotland. He left a trail of destruction and, as the report lays out, ‘many are still suffering the effects of his abuse’ more than fifty years later. The true scale of the criminality is hard to comprehend.
The landmark report, from one of Scotland’s foremost judges Lady Anne Smith has now laid bare the enormity of his offending, the nature of his depravity and how it was allowed to continue over his many years teaching in Scotland. For the first time, relevant documents, medical records and previously confidential interviews have been brought into the public domain. They reveal that Wares carried on abusing with the complicity of the much-celebrated South African psychiatrist Professor Henry Walton. Walton was of the opinion that ‘having paedophilic tendencies could make you a good teacher.’
In order to ‘cure’ his attraction to young boys, in 1967 a Cape Town neurologist referred Wares to Walton, who was by then practicing in Scotland, having himself come to Britain after graduating from the University of Cape Town in 1945.
A word on the much-lauded Walton. He was awarded many honorary doctorates from all around the world, was a member of the academies of medicine of Argentina, Belgium and Poland, and was given the Albert Schweitzer Award in Warsaw in 2003. In 2009 he was given a Life Achievement Award by the Association for Medical Education in Europe, and became Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at Edinburgh.
His other achievement was facilitating the desecration of the childhoods of hundreds of innocent little boys by permitting Wares to prey on them. From beginning to end, Walton was his apologist and supporter.
Lady Smith details how those children were harmed by Wares. Many are still suffering the effects of his abuse, which she describes as ‘appalling both in its nature and its extent.’
Walton wrote to an adoption agency in June 1973 in support of Wares’ and his wife’s application to adopt a child. By 1975 Wares had, in the course of treatment, stated he was ‘apprehensive about possible sexual feelings for when she is older’
Lady Smith, the presiding judge, has now revealed that Walton ignored Wares’ own GP, his wife Rosemary Wares and an uncle who was a consultant paediatrician in Edinburgh when they said they thought Walton was ‘utterly irresponsible’ in allowing him to teach as there was bound to be ‘trouble’ with prepubescent boys.
Wares was employed by two prestigious Scottish private schools – The Edinburgh Academy and Fettes. The report explains why he first came to Scotland.
Iain Wares arrived in Edinburgh from his home in Cape Town in 1967, aged 27. He had been working as a teacher at St George’s Grammar School in Cape Town but resigned from his post in April that year on account of incidents he himself referred to as ‘playing around with small boys.’
Lady Smith writes:
In the course of the 12 years of his teaching career in Scotland, and possibly much longer on his return to South Africa the norm became that he was ‘asked to leave’ teaching jobs ‘quietly on account of similar incidents’. The headmaster of St George’s had asked him if he had been ‘interfering’ with children. He admitted having done so, and he resigned ‘as one would have to do’. He realised he had to leave: ‘Once it started I couldn’t stop it.’
Lady Smith’s report is comprehensive and thorough. It is hard not to conclude that Wares may well be the most prolific child sex offender in British criminal history.
The witness statements are numerous and powerful:
‘He would get you to stand up at his desk on the pretext of checking your work and he would run his hand up the inside of your trouser leg and fondle your genitals. It was always boys in short trousers. He did this in front of everybody. This went on for the year I was there. It was a frequent, sometimes daily event over the full time I was there’.
Another said:
‘Sexual abuse was a regular occurrence. I saw it happening to about 50 per cent of the class’ Many others confirmed that this happened on a daily basis.’
Professor Henry Walton died in Edinburgh in 2012. Ian and Rosemary Wares are still married and living in Cape Town. Extradition proceedings are on-going. Mr Wares’ next appearance is in April.
