(Image: PA)

A former teacher convicted of abusing young girls in residential care over a 15-year period has been spared prison but ordered to pay £1,000 to each of her victims.

Patricia Robertson, 77, was found guilty of numerous offences committed between 1969 and 1984 at Fornethy House in Kilry, Angus, involving children as young as five.

The High Court in Glasgow heard how Robertson subjected the girls to cruel punishments, including force-feeding, banging heads together, dragging them by the hair, and punishing them for bed-wetting.

Robertson, who was 21 when she committed her first offence, was convicted in October of cruel and unnatural treatment against 18 victims.

Many victims attended Wednesday’s sentencing and expressed outrage, calling the punishment “disgusting” and an “ab

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