Former footballer said he turned back on teaching career due to abuse claims
- Rory Cassidy
- Jun 18
- 2 min read
A former footballer has revealed he turned his back on his teaching career when accused of abuse at a residential school.
Michael Neil, who played for Arbroath and Clyde, is currently on trial accused of physically assaulting a number of boys and girls at Kerelaw School.
The 72-year-old denies abusing the former pupils, many of whom are now dead, at the school in Stevenston, North Ayrshire, in the 1980s and 1990s.
The ex-PE teacher faces 16 charges and is currently on trial over the alleged abuse at Paisley Sheriff Court.
He is accused of hitting the pupils during games in PE lessons in the gym hall at the school, during different games.
The jury has been told that one game was called 'run the gauntlet' and saw pupils being struck as they ran out of the gymnasium.
They have also been told that children were struck with medicine balls, golf balls, hockey balls, tennis balls, volleyballs and footballs while playing dodgeball, football and games known as 'killer ball' and 'murder ball'.
Today, Thursday, June 18, 2026, Neil, of Kilmarnock, East Ayrshire, took to the stand to give evidence in his own defence.
And he said he turned his back on his teaching career when being accused of harming kids.
He said: "I thought I'd rather do any job in the world rather than teaching.
"I opted out of re-registering with the General Teaching Council for Scotland.
"I decided I'd never teach again. I had no intention of getting back into education."
The court heard he was told in 2007 that prosecutors from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service had decided not to proceed with the allegations against him.
But the court heard he then appeared in court in 2021 in connection with the current case after another investigation.
He said: "I had no knowledge there was another investigation of any kind.
"EIS, the union I was with when I was a teacher, refused to fund my legal representation.
"If you have a certain amount of money you don't get legal aiid and I had an amount of money."
He said one of the boys who had made allegations against him lied regularly, even claiming to have played professional football while a resident at the school.
He explained: "He said he went to see St Mirren against Greenock Morton and that they were short of a player so he played the second half and scored a goal.
"He said he played in a professional game. I was playing part-time football at the time, I was probably at Clyde or something like that."
And Neil said that one of the girls who has made allegations against him had a drug problem at the time she lived at the school.
He maintains his innocence and the trial, before Sheriff Eoin McGinty, continues.
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