A retired Scottish teacher, Iain Wares, 86, has been arrested in South Africa on an additional 90 charges of historical sexual and physical abuse. Wares, who taught at Edinburgh Academy and Fettes College during the 1960s and 1970s, has been accused by more than 60 former pupils of horrific acts of abuse that spanned decades.
He has been living in Cape Town since 1979 after leaving Scotland amid allegations that both institutions failed to report complaints against him. Many victims claim the schools’ silence allowed Wares to flee the country and continue teaching in South Africa until his retirement in 2006.
The extradition process, first initiated in 2018, led to Wares’s arrest in May 2019 on seven initial charges of indecent and libidinous conduct. In August last year, the Cape Town High Court approved his extradition on three charges, but proceedings were delayed after UK prosecutors moved to add dozens more.
The latest charges have been filed by 65 alleged victims who say they were sexually and physically abused while under Wares’s care in Scotland. The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service has confirmed he now faces a total of 74 charges in the UK.
A separate case against him is also ongoing in South Africa, following accusations from a former student there. Wares has been granted bail, with a court hearing scheduled for 20 November.
Barry Welsh, current rector of Edinburgh Academy, expressed the institution’s ongoing remorse and commitment to transparency, saying that the school remains open to listening to survivors who wish to share their experiences.
The shocking development has reignited discussions about accountability, institutional failure, and the lasting trauma faced by survivors of historic abuse within elite educational institutions.
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