Kerelaw school is at the centre of the child abuse claims

Chris Johnson was sacked from his post at Kerelaw in June 2005 over claims of poor leadership.

The hearing in Glasgow was told how he appeared to ignore bad behaviour from some colleagues.

Mr Johnson disputes his dismissal by Glasgow City Council which ran the school. The case continues.

John Legg, who chaired the disciplinary hearing which led to the sacking of Mr Johnson, told the employment tribunal that a former employee John Muldoon, who is now in jail, had to be counselled about his behaviour.

Mr Legg suggested that Mr Johnson had effectively condoned Mr Muldoon's behaviour following complaints of alleged manhandling of youngsters and bullying.

Inappropriate practices

Last year, two men were found guilty of physically and sexually abusing children in their care at Kerelaw.

Mr Muldoon, a 53-year-old residential care worker was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in jail.

Art teacher Matthew George, 56, was jailed for 10 years at the High Court in Edinburgh for a "horrifying catalogue" of offences.

Mr Johnson, 54, who managed the care side of the open unit at Kerelaw faced a number of allegations, including a failure to ensure adequate management strategies regarding the level of restraints and failure to protect young people from inappropriate practices by staff.

Mr Legg told the tribunal that it appeared Mr Johnson was colluding with bad practices such as lack of appropriate controls, intimidation of young people and ignoring matters involving Mr Muldoon which should have been seen as a "red flag" and treated extremely seriously.

Council investigation

He said a counselling note relating to Mr Muldoon was "just littered with indications of inappropriate restraint, rag-dolling and bullying. All these elements were there."

He suggested that rather than managing a system to deal with such matters, Mr Johnson was "deliberately colluding with bad practice."

Mr Legg added "He was just completely ignoring any issues and siding with staff. It is a major signal that there was an issue here."

The tribunal also heard that that during the council investigation "young people gave examples, one after another about being bullied, not being listened to, complaints being squashed and being physically bullied via physical restraints".

Mr Johnson is not accused of taking part in any alleged abuse and wants the tribunal to award compensation.