Photograph by Graham Horn
Pupils at a private school, sometimes described as the “Catholic Eton”, have allegedly filmed themselves skinning a cat alive, stoning birds, and beating younger boys after wrapping them in cling film or duct tape a whistleblower has claimed.
Rachel Ashley, a former housemother at the £25,000 per year Oratory School in Woodcote, Reading, made the allegations during an employment tribunal, where she said her warnings were ignored, with the headmaster exclaiming:
“Boys will be boys”
Ashley told the tribunal, where she is claiming for constructive dismissal, that she felt she finally had to leave because of the danger posed by one 15-year-old boy who armed himself with weapons including flame-throwers and nailed gloves.
The headmaster of the school, former Royal Marine Clive Dytor, is yet to give evidence.