‘I was raped by a nun at 14 and I’ve only just spoken to our child’
Man makes contact with daughter 62 years after ordeal
A MAN who was just 14 years old when he fathered a nun’s child spoke to his daughter for the first time yesterday.
‘I’ve never known anything like it,’ declared William Edward Hayes, a 76-year-old pensioner now.
‘I got a call from my daughter, living in London. What a conversation we had, absolutely brilliant,’ he said.
He told Liveline on RTÉ Radio 1 that he spoke to his daughter just a day after he went on the show previously, to appeal for information about her whereabouts.
As the Irish Daily Mail reported earlier this month, an Irish nun at the John Reynolds home, in Lytham St Anne’s, England, abused him and became pregnant with his baby in the Fifties, when he was just 14.
Sister Mary Conleth then left the order, returned to Ireland, gave birth to the girl, who was adopted, while the mother went back to Britain. Sister Mary died in 2002 but her family made contact after hearing Mr Hayes on radio.
They had already been united with his daughter and asked her if she was willing to speak to him.
Father and daughter spoke on the phone for the first time yesterday morning.
‘We got on like a house on fire,’ Mr Hayes said. He also learned he now has grandchildren and is hoping to meet them soon.
‘I feel as though I could run there now. We are both a bit elated. I never experienced anything like it,’ he said.
In a statement read out on the show, the Sisters of the Franciscan Missionaries of St Joseph, who ran the former home, said they ‘are desperately sad that abuse took place to Mr Hayes while he was placed under our care’. They said: ‘The Franciscan Missionaries of St Joseph have offered our sincere and unreserved apology for the abuse he suffered while resident at the John Reynolds Home and all the subsequent pain and trauma which followed the actual abuse.
‘There is no place for abuse in the Church and, along with every Compassion in the news: How the Mail reported William’s story other agency caring for children time at the home in the Fifties. He and vulnerable adults, we now was just ten years old, and known have stringent safeguarding as Billy, when he was taken to the policies which aim to prevent any home. Having grown up poor and possible recurrence of what neglected and suffering from happened to Mr Hayes.’ malnutrition, arriving at the home
Mr Hayes, who lives in Carlisle, first appeared to be a blessing. has waived his right to anonymity He said last month: ‘It was nice to reveal that he was raped by to be somewhere warm, where I the 27-year-old nun during his was eating food and having hot baths. My first years there created some great memories for me. I was a great student, I sang in the choir, I could read perfect Latin and played football – even being touted by local football clubs.’
This changed when Sister Mary Conleth arrived a couple of years later. She worked in the laundry room and asked for his help.
He was regularly on his own with her, giving her access to him daily. He said: ‘I had barely started work in the laundry when it happened. I was still 12. She’d pull my trousers down, push me to the floor and lay on top of me.
‘She would pull her habit up and she had no pants on. She’d talk dirty to me. I would not let her kiss me. I thought babies were made by men kissing women.’
By the time he was 14, he was allocated his own room – something unheard of at the home. But the reason soon became apparent, when Sister Conleth started paying him visits after lights out.
The abuse came to an end in April 1956 after she declared she was pregnant.
She was sent back to Ireland to live with her sister in Kildare, while he was banished from the home after Christmas 1956.
He was then adopted by another family and began his chaotic adult life in which he became an alcoholic by the time he was 21.
Mr Hayes got married and had two children but his marriage soon failed.
He went into the British army and served in the Royal Artillery, but left five years later, in 1969, after developing an ulcer, as a result of his drinking, and was given a medical discharge.
Mr Hayes said: ‘I couldn’t ever settle. Every single day I thought about the abuse, I started drinking to try to blot everything out. I never told anybody what happened to me, not even my wife.’
He learned he now has grandchildren She had access to him daily