The head teacher of St Marys College in Southampton ,Brother Jack Davis has been charged with six counts of historical abuse involving three boys between 1973 and 1984.(BBC teletext south of england). No doubt by the time it reaches court it will be thirty counts on twelve boys as it usually is as the compensation hunters flock to their local cop shop.

Unbelievable.

Does this mean then, I can pop into my local cop shop and tell them about all the little tw*ts who beat the crap out of me during my schooldays between 1977 and 1989 and argue that now they're all over 16 they're eligible to stand trial for the physical and mental abuse they inflicted?

This does not sound good and indeed a whole load of others will now start jumping onto this "story". God help us if this gets to court (or Max gets involved)... it will strike fear into the minds of almost every person that has ever been a teacher.

You probably could. Not only that you could probably sue the Headmaster and teachers for not doing more to protect you from the bullies.And while you are at it you could sue the education authorities just for good measure. if it was a faith school you could also sue the church. Its getting like that wonderful episode of South Park where evryone is sueing everyone else. A few years back there was a case of a guy who sued the men whom he met in public lavatories on the grounds they had made him gay. Think common sense prevailed in that one.

I wish we could !!

I would certainly love to sue the expensive school my father sent me to for 18 months where an English master seemed to delight in taking running leaps from across the room to bring a cane crashing down on small boy's hands.

I still have a slightly deformed finger today from when I twisted my hand in sheer terror and took a blow across a knuckle. This man had a serious problem, or perhaps he took pleasure in seeing boys wet themselves out of fright.

Years later telling my mother, she declared she would have gone to the school personally and decked the man. She was like that.

Fortunately my father, as his finances suffered temporarily, took me out the school declaring that my 2 older brothers who had attended.."came out still dills just like when they went in so it's waste of money "