“I was abused there. It’s sick to use this site for new centre:” Anger at support centre in abuse home

Survivors of sexual abuse have criticised a decision to open a support centre in the same building where they were targeted by a paedophile.

Former care home St Katharine’s in Edinburgh will be converted into a multi-million pound facility but one woman who was abused there as a teenager said it is a “crime scene”.

Another survivor who was repeatedly assaulted by St Katharine’s carer Gordon Collins said she could never set foot in the centre.

When it was announced that the former care home would be the site of the new centre, Detective Chief Superintendent Lesley Boal said it would offer a trauma service that will “minimise anxiety and provide all the support that victims might need”.

The Equally Safe Multi-Agency Centre, which is part-funded by a £2.4million Scottish Government grant, is due to be opened at St Katharine’s next year.

However, Holly Hamilton, 28, said she was “horrified” when she learned the centre for abused children will be in the building where she was abused by Collins when she was 15.

Collins was jailed for 10 years for sexually abusing children between 1995 and 2006 at Edinburgh care homes, St Katharine’s and Northfield.

Holly said survivors need the centre and welcomed the funding but said it should not be at St Katharine’s.

“Everyone who has been in care knows what that building was and what happened there,” she said. “I think it’s sick to choose that site.

“I was abused at that place so it will never be a service I can use because it holds too many traumatic memories. So much happened there.

A spokesman for the Chief Officers’ Group for Public Protection in Edinburgh, which is leading the project, said the site had been chosen “after an extensive search for the best option in Edinburgh”.