Overview
- Patricia Robertson, 77, received a three-year supervision order with a 12‑month daily home curfew from 3pm to midnight and must pay £1,000 to each of 18 victims within two months.
- The former teacher was convicted in October of cruel and unnatural treatment for offences between 1969 and 1984 against girls aged five to 12 at Fornethy House in Angus.
- Sentencing judge Lord Colbeck said the custody threshold was met, called her conduct sadistic, and dismissed her claims of victim collusion for financial gain as frankly absurd.
- Many survivors attended court and condemned the non-custodial outcome as too lenient, describing lasting trauma and a sense that probation does not reflect the harm.
- Civil actions continue, with Thompsons representing about 220 former residents and Digby Brown also pursuing claims, as scrutiny of the council-run home’s history intensifies.