Survivors of abuse at a council-owned residential school have been given an apology from the leader of Glasgow City Council.

Fornethy House was in operation for more than 30 years from the 1960s to the 1990s where girls were sent to convalesce in the country after an illness.

It was later used to give girls, mostly from deprived backgrounds, a short holiday.

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Thousands of girls were sent by the local authority to the facility in Kilry, Perth and Kinross, where many allegedly suffered abuses including being force-fed, beaten, emotionally abused and sexually assaulted.

At a meeting of Glasgow City Council, Susan Aiken issued the apology.

Aitken said: “There is a live criminal case relating to Fornethy House and it is vitally important that we do nothing to jeopardise that.

“Fornethy House was operated by Glasgow Corporation and then Strathclyde Regional Council from 1960 until 1993

“It originally provided short convalescent stays to primary aged girls and later provided accommodation to girls who it was felt would benefit from a break in the countryside.

“Since the facility closed a number of women have come forward and recounted experience of abuse when they attended Fornethy House.

“I was shocked, and I know we will all have been shocked, to hear those accounts of abuse. 

“On behalf of the council I want to apologise and say sorry for any abuse suffered by children who attended Fornethy House.”

Earlier this year, at a meeting in Glasgow of the Fornethy House Survivors Group, the women campaigning for recognition and access to the Scottish Government Redress scheme women said it was never a respite centre or a holiday home.

They said it was a school under the control of  the Glasgow Corporation then Strathclyde Regional Council.

They said: "Glasgow City Council now have direct responsibility for everything that happened there."