I felt like I was less than nothing.. I hated myself
and lock her inside. He consistently sexually abused her from the time she was eight until she was 12.
Kate was 15 when she left the care system – by that time she’d lost all contact with her older sister– and she returned to Derry, where she failed to reunite with her father.
She married briefly at 16 and was forced to shoplift for food to survive before heading to England where she tracked down her alcoholic mother.
She married a second time but returned to Northern Ireland when the relationship broke down.
Kate is now hoping to trace long lost relatives and friends while she’s in Scotland. And she hopes her memories of the city will help trigger any reunion.
She attended St Columba’s Primary School in 1963 and lived in Garscube Road with her aunt and uncle, Minnie and Billy Wright, who owned a fruit shop there. She also remembers playing with a girl called Ann Mowett, who lived close to the local hospital.
Kate said: “I hope this publicity will trigger some memories for folk in Glasgow and help me meet with them again. It would help me piece together a very important part of my life.”
Kate will join the survivors’ vigil in Edinburgh at the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry. She’ll be accompanied by Margaret McGuckin, one of Northern Ireland’s leading abuse campaigners.
Dave Sharp, one of Scotland’s most prominent campaigners, who was abused as a child in the notorious St Ninian’s home run by the Christian Brothers in Fife, is organising the event.
He said: “Just before Christmas, John Swinney said there are roughly 2500 survivors of historical institutional child abuse in Scotland. We’re asking what has been done to find them.
“It’s great to have the support of Kate and Margaret.
“They’ve been through this. Their experience, advice and counsel is priceless to all survivors.”