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Court hears of 'degrading' attack

Island man denies charge

Two more men have told jurors of alleged assaults by an Island man during his time as owner of a South Cumbria boarding school.

 

Derrick Cooper of Hillberry Green in Douglas is one of five men on trial at Carlisle Crown Court having denied allegations of physical abuse of boys at Underley Hall School in Kirkby Lonsdale during the 1970s and 1980s.

 

The court was told Mr Cooper dragged one misbehaving pupil out

of a shower room unclothed and, while he was held by two other members of staff, hit him with something he thought was a wet towel or slipper – something the former pupil said was ‘painful, embarrassing and degrading’.

 

The 77 year-old denies six charges alleging actual bodily harm assault and two child cruelty allegations.

 

The trial resumes this morning (Monday).

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