Scotland: 1960-1970s US Sailors’ Abuse at Dunclutha Children’s Home

“American sailors working at a nuclear submarine base in Scotland have been accused of historical sexual abuse of children at a nearby care home.

Former residents of Dunclutha children’s home in Dunoon, Argyll, have given brave testimony to the Scottish Child Abuse inquiry about the suffering they endured at the hands of both US Navy personnel and brutal care home staff during the 1960s and 70s.

Abuse survivors say children in care were taken out by sailors ‘as a public relations exercise’.

One survivor compared his treatment to ‘being at a market’, with youngsters made to line up wearing their ‘Sunday best’ for the Americans, and ‘if they liked you, they picked you to go home with them’.

Up to 1,400 American servicemen were stationed at Holy Loch, near Dunoon, from 1961. The site on the Cowal Peninsula was used by the US Navy to house its nuclear submarines and ballistic missiles until 1992, after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Some former Dunclutha residents said the Americans were the only good thing about living at the home, as they provided entertainment, treats and respite from the cruelty of depraved staff.

But others described being abused by the military men who they said had free access to the 50-odd Dunclutha youngsters.

One man, who spoke to the inquiry using the pseudonym Peter, said he was ‘groomed’ by the seamen and seriously sexually assaulted when he was just seven or eight.’.

Peter, who was born in 1960, was taken into Glasgow City Corporation’s care as a baby and was in Dunclutha from aged six to nine.

He said the sailors would visit every weekend, adding: ‘They would come with a naval minibus. They just had carte blanche to pick us up and do what they wanted.’

Peter said there was ‘all the American razzmatazz’ at the base, including ‘ten-pin bowling and what we called McDonald’s’.

He said: ‘‘On several occasions, I was taken on a ship called USS Simon Lake. I got to know them and they got to know me. Then they got to groom me.’

Peter said the sailors would give him ‘all sorts of goodie bags’ when he went out with them. ‘Then they started touching me,’ he added.

‘It went on for some considerable time. They were then entrusted to take children away on wee breaks. That was when I encountered my downfall.’

Around Christmas of 1967 or 1968, Peter said he was taken out by a married ‘officer’ who he had been out with before for runs in his ‘big American car’.

He said: ‘He lived in a large, sandstone villa on a hill overlooking the naval base…I trusted him. I didn’t know what grooming was then.’

On the day he was attacked, Peter said they had returned to the man’s home after a trip to a nearby beach and forest.

He had dinner and a bath, but after the bath he was assaulted in another man’s presence. Peter said: ‘The man had stripped himself down to his underwear. He stood over me and proceeded to perform a sexual act…

Peter then described a serious sexual assault in graphic detail, and said he was ‘screaming with pain’. Afterwards he said he was ‘put into bed’ with both of the men. ‘The deeds were done and it was hell for me. They cleaned me up and bought me toys,’ he said.

‘They were acts of depravity beyond one’s comprehension.’

Other testimonies mention interactions with the Americans, including one woman who was in Dunclutha for just six months and faced three sexual assaults during that time by staff.

On one occasion, the woman, who used the name Carol, said she was groped by a handyman who worked at the home.

She also said older girls ‘orchestrated’ an incident where she was assaulted. ‘The girls said I would get sweets. I went in and I was made to sit on his knee,’ she said.

‘The same thing was happening to [the others]. I witnessed them sitting on [the man]’s knee, and his hand going up their skirts. He gave them sweets too.’

Carol added: ‘Some of the older girls would get taken down to the submarines. I would hide so I didn’t have to go. They would come back with sweets.’

Newspaper articles from the 1960s detail several times the US sailors interacted with the Dunclutha children, including in 1965 when they laid on a massive birthday party for one girl named Ann.

U.S. Navy crew stationed at Holy Loch, near Dunoon

Another article from 1964 shows growing local concern about the sailors’ presence in Dunoon, with MP Emrys Hughes even challenging Prime Minister Sir Alec Douglas-Home in Parliament to ‘disguise himself as an American sailor on a Saturday night’ and witness the ‘vice’ in the town.

A third story from 1962 details how a 15-year-old Dunoon girl was preparing to fly to the US to see her American sailor boyfriend who she wanted to marry.

Six people told the inquiry about their experiences at Dunclutha, with all of them detailing cruelty, violence and neglect at the hands of staff, and one detailing extreme abuse by the US Navy personnel.

Other children said they suffered brutal and humiliating punishments by staff, including having their faces rubbed in soiled bedding if they wet the bed at night, being beaten with belts and brushes and being force-fed.

A US Navy spokesman declined to comment.”

We were lined up, picked out and abused by US sailors say victims at Scots care home
[DAily Mail 3/7/26 by Hannah Rodger]

Disgusting!

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