A former woodwork teacher who abused youngsters in his care walked free from court yesterday.

Appeal judges slashed the two-year jail term imposed on Charles McKenna, 89, by half and declared that, because of the usual rules on early release, the six months he had served was enough.

In 2003, McKenna, of Stirling, was found guilty of indecent assault and lewd conduct involving vulnerable pupils at St Ninian’s List D School in the late 1970s.

The school on the Gartmore Estate, near Stirling, was run by the de la Salle teaching order and took in boys who had committed petty offences, or who were thought to be in need of care, until it closed its doors in 1982.

• Full story at the Daily Record.

• Filed under Crime, Roman Catholic Church, Scottish Christian News Monitor, Tayside, Fife + Central.