Abuse victim tells nun: Best of luck when you face God
A FORMER resident of Smyllum Park orphanage yesterday wished the nun who allegedly abused him the ‘best of luck when you face God’.
Billy Whicher, 69, said he had a tooth broken when he was attacked by a nun who meted out violent beatings to him during the late 1950s and early 1960s.
He was left partially deaf at the age of 11 after a member of staff allegedly hit his head – wrongly believing he had knocked over a bag of potatoes.
Yesterday, Mr Whicher was told by Colin MacAulay, QC, for the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry (SCAI), that the nun he claims abused him denied the allegations, telling the probe she would ‘never do anything to the boys’.
But Mr Whicher dismissed the denial as ‘complete lies’ and later said he hoped there would be an official ‘acknowledgement of guilt’ for his abuse.
Asked outside the Edinburgh hearing what his message would be for the nun, he said: ‘Best of luck when you face God and tell him what you did in His name.’
Mr Whicher, who was at Smyllum in Lanark between 1957 and 1963, broke down as he told of witnessing the death of his friend Francis McColl, 13, after being hit on the head with a golf club in 1961. The inquiry heard children had been playing with the golf club when the boy was accidentally struck on the temple.
Mr Whicher broke down when it dawned on him the reason his friend did not know he should move away when another child swung the club was because Francis was also ‘partially deaf’.
As a result, he said Francis failed to move away and was hit on the temple as another child swung the club.
Mr Whicher said: ‘What’s happened is when the kid’s gone to move back, Frankie wouldn’t have heard him – he just didn’t hear him. Up until this point it never made sense, until now.’
Later, Mr Whicher, who now lives in London, said he believed the nuns and other staff at Smyllum had a ‘duty of care’ for Francis.
Reflecting on his ordeal at Smyllum, he said: ‘When you’re brought up in that environment, sometimes it’s your family that suffers because you don’t know how to handle arguments. You tend to walk away. I think the inquiry has helped a lot, but it’s also helped my two children understand why I wasn’t always there for them.’
The sister of a boy who died at the orphanage told the inquiry he was buried without a headstone – despite promises from staff they would pay for one.
Anne Marie Carr, 64, attended Smyllum between 1960 and 1964, along with her brother Sammy.
In December, the SCAI heard the boy died of a brain haemorrhage at six following an E.coli infection, which he could have caught by touching a dead rat. The inquiry also heard evidence that Sammy, who was underdeveloped and may have been malnourished, was savagely beaten by a nun days before his death in 1964, but that the attack was not the cause of death.
Miss Carr said her grandfather and uncle attended Sammy’s funeral and were to pay for a headstone, but were told not to because the home would foot the bill.
She added: ‘We were told they would get a headstone for him as a worker was fond of him, but there was never a headstone.’
Miss Carr said nuns would hit children with rosary beads and crucifixes, while residents could be forced to sit at a kitchen table through the night until morning if they did not eat their food.
She also claimed a girl was scalded with hot water in a bath for being ‘cheeky’ to a nun.
Another witness gave evidence on her now deceased mother’s experience at the home, where she had stayed between 1917 and 1928 from the age of two. It stemmed from a conversation the two had decades ago, but she only later realised the impact it had on her mother’s emotional capabilities.
The witness, known to the inquiry as Mary, said: ‘She never said she loved you. I know she cared, but she never showed any outward sign of caring. Now we know, we think if we would have known sooner, it could have been so different.’
Smyllum, which closed in 1981, was run by the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul.
A statement previously read out on its behalf said it was against ‘any form of abuse’ and offered ‘sincere and heartfelt apologies to anyone who suffered any form of abuse in our care’.
The inquiry continues.