[A] FORMER pupil at a South Cumbria boarding school has told jurors he was throttled and thrown around “like a rag doll” during an alleged attack by a teacher.
Four men are on trial at Carlisle Crown Court having denied assaults which are said to have occurred at Underley Hall School, near Kirkby Lonsdale, during the 1970s and 1980s.
Derrick Cooper, of Hillberry Green, Douglas, Isle of Man, denies six charges which allege actual bodily harm assault. The 77-year-old former school owner further denies two child cruelty allegations.
Two former teachers and an ex-handyman each deny one actual bodily harm assault allegation. They are Fred Trevor Taylor, 75, Lower Park Royd Drive, Sowerby Bridge, West Yorkshire; James Robert Farish, 58, of Oakwood, Kendal; and David Hadwin, 71, of Raygarth Gardens, Kirkby Lonsdale.
Allegations about Farish were made today (WED) when another former student gave evidence.
He spoke of Underley Hall being “brutal”, and conceded he “hated” both the school and Farish, his then teacher.
Having received warnings about bad behaviour, the witness told jurors how Farish “dragged me out of the classroom by my hair”.
“He was trying to calm me down and I wasn’t calming down because I didn’t like him,” he said. “He grabbed me by the neck. He was squeezing that tight I almost passed out because I couldn’t breathe. I was begging him to let go.”
Farish, he alleged, “started ragging me about”, “just throwing me about…like a rag doll”. He claimed the teacher also used a knuckle to “whack me on the head”. “I had little lumps all over my head,” he said.
The trial continues.
