In 2019, the Offender Database reported that Peter Toner, 61, was found guilty at the High Court in Glasgow of sexually abusing five pupils at a boarding school in Largs, Ayrshire. Toner, formerly known as “Brother Peter,” was a housemaster at the now-closed St Columba’s College during the early 1980s. The court heard that he preyed on boys aged between eight and 12, using his position within the Catholic Marist Brothers to groom victims with “special treatment” and emotional manipulation, even telling one child he loved him “like a son.”
The trial revealed that Toner’s predatory behaviour was so persistent that another teacher once resorted to locking him in his room to prevent him from accessing the children. Toner was convicted of six sexual abuse charges and one count of physical assault involving a wooden duster. Judge Johanna Johnston QC remarked that the profound damage Toner inflicted on his victims was likely to be long-lasting. He was snared decades later after his victims came forward to report their ordeals to Police Scotland.
Toner was already serving a prison sentence at the time of this trial for abusing two boys at a boarding school in England. His previous convictions included three counts of possessing indecent photos of a child, one count of taking indecent photos, and three counts of indecency with a child. The judge at the High Court in Glasgow deferred his final sentencing for the Largs offences, noting that a lengthy custodial term was inevitable given his history of institutional abuse.
As a result of these convictions, Toner remains on the Sex Offenders Register for life. He is managed under the highest level of Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) in Ayrshire and within the Scottish Prison Service. These official monitoring requirements ensure that even if he were eventually eligible for parole, he would be subject to strict notification rules and prohibitions regarding his residency and contact with children, enforced by the police and the National Probation Service.
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