Witherslack Hall teachers spared jail over child assaults

Roger Whitehouse, left, and Alec Greening worked at the school in the 1970s and 80s

Two former teachers convicted of cruelty charges against pupils at a residential school have been spared jail.

Roger Whitehouse, 78 and Alec Greening, 69, worked at Witherslack Hall, a boys' school at Grange-over-Sand in Cumbria.

They were given prison sentences of 12 months and eight months respectively, each suspended for two years.

Judge James Adkin found there had been "deliberate disregard for the welfare of the victims".

"You were offenders with professional responsibility," he said.

"You have both lost your good names in the community."

Two men came forward in 2014 to say they had been assaulted at the school in the 1970s and 1980s.

'Bleeding and bruised'

Whitehouse and Greening denied the charges but were convicted by a jury at Carlisle Crown Court after a four-week trial.

One of the former pupils, Peter Taylor, told the court how Greening punished him by making him stand outdoors in poor weather for a prolonged period wearing only a PE kit.

Another, Alan Rutty, said Whitehouse had made him walk from a quarry barefoot after he had freewheeled a dumper truck into it.

"My feet were cut and bleeding and bruised," he told the jury.

Whitehouse, of Sea View, Haverigg, and Greening, of Dalton, near Burton-in-Kendal, had since led "four decades of blameless life", the court was told.

Both men were given four-month, night-time curfews.

Whitehouse was earlier acquitted of one other child cruelty allegation, and two assault charges.

Three other former teachers were also acquitted of single assault charges.