Teacher ‘completely lost it’ in school attack, Nicky Campbell tells court

BBC broadcaster Nicky Campbell has told a court that a private school teacher attacked him in a “complete frenzy” during the 1970s.

The 65-year-old claimed he was attacked by a teacher while attending the Edinburgh Academy.

Mr Campbell gave evidence during an examination of facts hearing at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Wednesday and Thursday.

Colin Turner, 92, and David Bourne, 72, both former teachers at the school, are accused of attacking pupils around the 1970s but they have been deemed medically unfit to stand trial.

A sheriff is instead hearing evidence in the case and will determine whether there are grounds for conviction.

Mr Campbell, a BBC Radio 5 Live presenter, told the court on Thursday that Turner had violently attacked him while he was a pupil at the school and “completely lost it”.

He told the court: “It was a complete frenzy. I was absolutely terrified.”The court heard Turner allegedly came up behind Mr Campbell while he was looking at a notice board with another pupil.

Mr Campbell said he has a “vivid memory” of Turner slapping, hitting, dragging and “shaking him about”, before the teacher allegedly pushed him to the floor with his foot.

He added that he was “rag-dolled” by the teacher.

“It was more than 10 seconds of terror,” he said.

The broadcaster described the incident as “traumatic” and as “one of the worst things that ever happened to me”.

Mr Campbell said: “I was a skinny wee thing and he was a big man.

“The most vivid part is the yanking, the pulling, the feeling of the hits, the feeling of the slaps, him pushing me on the ground with his foot and thinking ‘oh f***, what have I done?’”

Under questioning from Turner’s defence lawyer Iain Smith, Mr Campbell said the pupil standing beside him at the time does not remember the incident.

Mr Campbell said the pupil had been “crying at the time”, but blamed “dissociative amnesia” for his lack of memory now.

“I’m not making it up, it was one of the most terrifying things that ever happened to me,” Mr Campbell said.

When asked why he and his mother did not go to police when it happened, Mr Campbell claimed reporting the incident in the 1970s would have been the “nuclear” option.

The case continues.