Oakwood School: Former pupil 'forced to eat own vomit'

Niomi Gabrielle, who went to the boys boarding school, had gender reassignment surgery in adult life

After two teachers admitted abusing children at a state boarding school, a former pupil has said she was left "traumatised" after being forced to eat vomit and witnessing serious violence.

"Boys were hit, force-fed sick, slippered, beaten in the sports barn," said Niomi Gabrielle, a former pupil of the now-closed Oakwood School, in Stowmarket, run for boys with emotional and behavioural problems.

The school, which operated from 1974 to 2000, has been at the centre of a Suffolk Police inquiry into allegations of excessive physical abuse.

Two former teachers admitted two offences each this week, while other charges against them, and two other teachers, were dismissed at Ipswich Crown Court.

Corporal punishment was made illegal in UK schools in 1987.

Oakwood closed in 2000 and is now a pupil referral unit on Chilton Way in Stowmarket

Brian Alliban was at a mainstream primary in Bury St Edmunds but was moved by the authorities and his parents to Oakwood, from the age of eight, until he left in 1986 when he was 16.

He had gender reassignment surgery in adult life and is now known as Niomi Gabrielle. She watched the Oakwood trial from the public gallery at court.

"There were teachers who were very demanding and very violent in the way they treated other boys and elements of that have traumatised me ever since," said Ms Gabrielle.

"The punishments which were meted out were legal to a point, but when it got to the stage of whacking someone's head against a canoe for example, that is over the top in terms of how a child should be treated by a member of staff."

She said one of her worst memories was being forced to eat liver at mealtimes, which she she did not like and then being forced to eat her own sick when she vomited.

Niomi Gabrielle returned to Suffolk for the trial of four former Oakwood teachers at Ipswich Crown Court

She said she was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder as an adult, as well as gender dysphoria.

"I already had emotional problems, interpersonal and learning difficulties but certainly the physical abuse that happened at Oakwood and a lot of things I've struggled with since, are a result of being there."

Ms Gabrielle is one of more than 100 former pupils who are mounting a civil legal case for damages against Suffolk County Council, which ran Oakwood.

Victims 'fully heard'

Speaking at the end of the trial at Ipswich Crown Court, a Suffolk County Council spokesman said: "[When individuals came forward] we immediately contacted the police who initiated a complex and detailed investigation into these allegations.

"We are very glad this investigation has now reached a conclusion and that the voices of the people involved at the time have been fully heard and hope they feel justice has been done.

"We would strongly encourage anyone who has previously experienced such treatment to bring it to our attention at the earliest possible opportunity."

The two teachers, along with a former head teacher, are due to be sentenced on Friday.

Ms Gabrielle said she had some good memories of Oakwood.

"The school wasn't just full of bad people violating boys - there were also good teachers," she said.