Probe police bid to contact nuns was ‘shambolic’
A HIGH Court judge yesterday rebuked police for shambolic attempts to contact a religious order during a child abuse probe – saying officers should have simply looked on the internet for the phone number.
Lady Smith, chairman of the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry (SCAI), spoke out after Police Scotland outlined the limited efforts it had made to get in touch with the Good Shepherd Sisters.
A detective tried to establish if the order held any records following child abuse allegations, but was unable to find the correct telephone number for them.
A Police Scotland lawyer, Laura-Anne van der Westhuizen, said the detective had no record of having got in touch with the order – despite the fact that a serious criminal investigation was under way.
Lady Smith said she was a ‘little puzzled’ at the number of ‘blind alleys’ the police had pursued, and asked Miss van der Westhuizen: ‘Have you tried Googling them [Good Shepherd Sisters]?’
She said ‘within 60 seconds’ a number could be found ‘using the services of Google’, and added she was surprised police would not have wanted to ensure the order was told about serious allegations.
Miss van der Westhuizen said ‘at that point in the investigation, the primary concern would have been recovering historic records’ and ensuring that children were not at risk.
The disclosures came after a lawyer for the Good Shepherd Sisters, David Anderson, said the order had been unaware of the conviction of Brian Dailey.
He abused children at Ladymary School in Edinburgh, which the Good Shepherd Sisters ran.
Dailey, 70, assaulted and sexually molested children he was charged with looking after at three homes over a decade-long period in the 1970s and 1980s. He was jailed for ten years in July.
At an earlier SCAI hearing, Sister Rosemary Kean of the Good Shepherd Sisters refused to acknowledge historical abuse by the order, despite Dailey having been found guilty only days previously. Mr Anderson said the order had been unaware of the abuse conviction because police had failed to contact the nuns.
But the order now accepted abuse had happened and apologised for it, adding: ‘They deplore the abuse of children and are happy to assist the inquiry.’
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