Nun punched me over broken rosary beads, blaming ‘Devil in me’

A FORMER resident of a Catholic orphanage has told how she was punched by a nun after being accused of breaking rosary beads.

The witness, known to the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry (SCAI) as Sarah, said her head was struck against a wall during the violent assault.

Sarah, who was born in 1966 and admitted to the Nazareth home in Lasswade, Midlothian, in 1967, recounted a catalogue of physical abuse. Describing the incident when rosary beads was broken in a statement read to the inquiry, Sarah said: ‘I had to say the Devil made me do it.’

She was also stripped naked while a nun beat her with a slipper for so long she was left with bruises.

The SCAI is currently looking at children’s homes which were run by the Sisters of Nazareth.

Another witness told the inquiry that a ‘cruel’ and ‘sadistic’ nun repeatedly forced his head under the water at bathtime.

The witness, known as Kenny, wept as he spoke of his ordeal, which also took place at the Nazareth home in Lasswade.

Describing his ‘miserable existence’, Kenny said the nun would push children’s heads under water and put soap in their mouths. He added: ‘She would try to hold your head down – and you would come up fighting for breath.’

The witness, who was born in 1957 and went to the home in 1958, said that when he was aged six or seven the same nun would wake him and other children at night to scratch their bare backs.

Kenny told the Edinburgh hearing she was ‘very sadistic’ and ‘hurt a lot of kids’ – telling them ‘the Devil will get you’.

Another time, Kenny said a friend was left with a ‘hole in his head’ after a nun allegedly pushed him against a coat-