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Calls were last night mounting for a public inquiry into reports of mass physical and sexual abuse at one of Scotland's most notorious schools.

The Herald yesterday revealed that a three-year investigation into the Kerelaw residential unit in Ayrshire had uncovered around 40 abusers among its staff.

Investigators, working for Glasgow City Council, also warned that many more workers knew of the abuse but did nothing about it.

Their findings prompted major concern in the Scottish Parliament where politicians of all parties demanded that the abuse should never be repeated.

Yesterday two of the schools' former heads backed calls for a public inquiry, although Jim Hunter and Bob Forrest both believe such a probe would give a very different picture of the school than the council investigation.

Glasgow City Council ran the school, which was in Stevenston, Ayrshire, and took pupils from all over the country, mostly boys and girls with considerable problems with offending and behaviour. The council yesterday formally warned the Scottish Executive that some of the individuals believed to have abused children at Kerelaw were still working in care.

During First Minister's Questions at Holyrood yesterday, Alex Salmond said he was particularly concerned that some youth workers provisionally placed on the Disqualified from Working with Children List (DWCL) are still able to work with young people pending inquiries into their behaviour.

He said that while he did not wish to make policy "on the hoof" he had asked civil servants to examine whether the current set-up could be changed.

He said: "There is a part of the process just now which allows that if referred individuals have jobs at the time of the referral, they can continue work even during the provisional listing stage.

"I'm asking to have a look at that aspect because it seems to me anomalous and not equivalent to what happens in other organisations, where people, for example teachers, are often suspended from duty in these circumstances."

In the meantime, the First Minister said, everything must be done to trace those involved in the Kerelaw abuse who are still working with vulnerable youngsters and suspend them pending the outcome of any investigations.

LibDem leader Nicol Stephen said: "These are children who have had bad starts in life made worse by the way the state has looked after them." Annabel Goldie, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives, said people would be "filled with horror" at the extent of the abuse at Kerelaw.

"Instead of an environment for the provision of care, Kerelaw seemed to be an environment breeding a culture of abuse," she said.

Kerelaw's close-knit staff, accused by the council of working in a culture of fear and collusion, largely still disbelieve the allegations made against them and their colleagues.

Mr Forrest, the head for 14 years in the 1980s and 1990s, is not convinced by what he believes is council spin. Mr Forrest has not seen the full report but, speaking of the authority's early investigations, he said: "It was a collection of myths, stories, allegations (mostly unsubstantiated) moans and complaints by disaffected and disgruntled staff and former staff."

One of Mr Forrest's successors was Mr Hunter, who was removed from his post in June 2004 when council officials effectively took over the school. Mr Hunter, like Mr Forrest, has never been accused of abuse, and now believes only a full public inquiry will get to the truth of what happened in his school.

Mr Hunter said: "The only way the truth is going to be established about this is to have a public inquiry." Mr Hunter also stresses the sheer number of outsiders who visited the school. "Why didn't they see any abuse?" he asked.

That question, although from a very different point of view, has also been raised by child welfare advocates. They, too, would like to see a full public inquiry.