Nuns facing hundreds of child abuse claims from across the world

A RELIGIOUS order’s archivist has spent four years dealing with claims of child abuse from around the world, an inquiry heard.

Christine Hughes, 59, said she has completed ‘no other work’ with the Sisters of nazareth in that time.

The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry (SCAI) was told yesterday that the order faces hundreds of civil actions over allegations of mistreatment at its homes in Aberdeen; Cardonald, near Glasgow; Lasswade, Midlothian; and Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, as well as criminal proceedings.

At the hearing in edinburgh, Mrs Hughes admitted the order’s childcare records were ‘patchy’ before a full-time archivist was employed in 1994, because no central paperwork was kept – including diaries of admissions, visitors and punishment logs.

Also yesterday, a senior nun used the inquiry to ‘unreservedly apologise’ to abuse victims who have alleged that children were routinely beaten, made to take cold baths and had urine-soaked sheets put over their heads for wetting the bed.

Mrs Hughes said she has been working to provide the inquiry with an ‘accurate and comprehensive’ record of accounts, adding: ‘I have done no other work at all.’

Until the start of the SCAI last year, Mrs Hughes dealt with queries relating to 109 complaints from former residents of alleged mistreatment by nuns. The total has risen to 122, the inquiry heard. Most related to Aberdeen, but Cardonald was ‘not too far behind’, it was said.

Inquiry counsel Colin MacAuley said that 270 civil actions had been launched and 24 criminal proceedings.

Quizzed about the state of the archive when she arrived at the order’s HQ in London in 2011, Mrs Hughes agreed there was a ‘significant backlog’ of complaints, adding: ‘Yes, from all over the world.’

Meanwhile, regional mother superior Sister Anna Maria Doolan apologised to the children who had suffered abuse. Asked to clarify if this was only aimed at the victims of convicted abusers, she added: ‘I’m apologising unreservedly.

‘If any of these things did happen in our care, we wouldn’t want that to happen to any child in our care.’

She added: ‘It has been very painful listening to the evidence from the inquiry and the alleged treatment [victims] got during their time in care.’

Inquiry chairman Lady Smith asked her if she ‘believed’ witnesses who had not seen their alleged abusers convicted.

She replied: ‘They gave their evidence under oath so I have no reason to disbelieve them.’

The inquiry’s public hearing continues on Tuesday.