NUN RAPED ME I BECAME A FATHER AT 14 AFTER ABUSE HORROR...NOW I’VE MET MY DAUGHTER FOR FIRST TIME
A FORMER care home boy who fathered a child after being raped by a nun has found the daughter he feared he would never know and met her for the first time.
When Edward Hayes exclusively revealed to the Daily Express he was systematically sexually abused by the nun from the age of 12, he never thought telling his story would lead him to finding his long-lost child.
The 76-year-old had pleaded with the Catholic Church to let him know basic details about the child he fathered in the 1950s.
He said if he could find out if it was a boy or a girl and that they had lived a good life he would be able to “die happy”.
In spite of direct pleas to the Vatican, officials failed to offer any help.
He said: “I thought the circumstances were too unusual. I didn’t think a child, who was born after rape, would ever know their true beginnings so would never come forward. The best I could hope for was to keep appealing for help from the Catholic Church and I didn’t hold out much hope for that.
“I didn’t in a million years think they would ever want to meet me. I just wanted to know the child was OK and what had happened to them.”
But Edward, who was sexually abused by the nun between the ages of 12 and 14, could not believe it when the Daily Express story led his daughter to him.
Forging
Incredibly Edward, his 62-year-old daughter and her four children – Edward’s grandchildren – are now looking forward to forging a future together.
They met for the first time in London on Sunday.
Edward said: “It was the day I dared never believe would happen. This is it now, now that we have found each other. My twilight years are going to be good ones.”
Edward’s daughter, said: “It was a day of pure joy for me and my family. After 20 years of looking for my father, I have finally found him at the age of 62. And my children now have a grandfather.”
Edward’s ordeal occurred at the former John Reynolds Home in Lytham St Annes, Lancashire, run by The Franciscan Missionaries of St Joseph.
He fell victim to then 27-year-old Irish nun Sister Mary Conleth, real name Bessie Veronica Lawler.
When she fell pregnant she was sent away in disgrace. Edward was sent to a hostel in Carlisle believing the nun had returned to Ireland.
But she had been sent to Guildford, Surrey, to give birth to the daughter before she was adopted.
She then returned to Lytham – her family now believe in a desperate attempt to find Edward with whom she was infatuated. When she couldn’t find him she returned to Ireland to live with her sister before building a new life, marrying and having two more sons and two daughters. She died in 2002.
It was those children who discovered their mother’s first child when they began researching their family tree around a decade ago.
That meant Edward’s daughter was already in touch with her biological mother’s family but had no knowledge about her father despite frequent attempts to find him.
Following the Daily Express story last month, the nun’s family recognised their mother’s name and told the daughter that it must be her.
Edward said: “Of course it is a massive blow for her family. They are struggling to come to terms with being told their mother was a rapist. I don’t think they believe it, that she was capable of that.”
Because of this, Edward’s daughter does not wish to be named or pictured to protect her identity and that of her family.
Edward added: “She feels guilty that, while we are very happy they are going through an awful lot. She feels a lot for her other family and doesn’t want to rub it in. It is so lovely to find out my daughter had been trying to find me too.
“Since speaking to the Daily Express it has been such a whirlwind. I have come from a dark place to seeing things completely differently. Knowing part of the family history has allowed me to come to terms with what happened in my past. I have forgiven Sister Mary Conleth. The more I think about it, the more I think she did what she did out of love for me.
“To find out she had come back to Lytham, I think possibly to find me, and also to discover she put my name on our daughter’s birth certificate, suggests in some way she loved me. I have also come to realise how much it has helped me to speak out. I have had nothing but compassion from people who I’ve met and seen what I have been through.
“I was always scared to even face people but I am no longer afraid.” But, he said, the biggest achievement was to meet his daughter.
He added: “I was so nervous. But when we saw each other we hugged straight away. She said ‘hello Dad, it’s about time’. We must have shared around 800 cuddles.
“It was fantastic, spot on, we even look alike. We have the same eyes and nose.
“She has my sense of humour and likes a joke, just like me.”
‘It was the day I dared never believe would happen’