‘Psychotic’ nun tells inquiry: I hope I’m not a child abuser

A NUN accused of being ‘psychotic’ yesterday told an inquiry she ‘hoped’ she was not a child abuser.

Using the pseudonym Sister Mary, she said she believed some survivors may have colluded to concoct a series of allegations about Smyllum Park children’s home in Lanark.

But in evidence at the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry (SCAI) yesterday, she admitted ‘slapping’ children to punish them. As one of her alleged victims sat yards away at the Edinburgh hearing, Sister Mary denied a catalogue of abuse claims.

The 77-year-old, who joined Smyllum in 1958, was confronted with a statement taken from a nun she had worked with in the 1960s, alleging that she struck a boy so hard it left red marks. Asked if this was true, Sister Mary said: ‘I don’t think so. I have no recollection of this time, or any other time... I just hope it didn’t happen.’

She added: ‘I’m sure I gave a smack to a child [but] I would never deliberately hit a child hard.’ She said slaps on the hand were the ‘only punishment I gave out’.

A witness who earlier alleged she had been abused by Sister Mary, watched as the nun insisted her claims ‘must have been mis-opportunity taken identity’. The woman had claimed Sister Mary – who was advised by SCAI chairman Lady Smith that she had the right not to incriminate herself – was ‘psychotic’, and had punched and kicked her.

Inquiry QC Colin MacAulay said these were ‘extreme allegations’. But Sister Mary said: ‘I’ve never treated this individual like this. I’ve never treated any individual like this.’

She was also told about evidence last month from Dr Theresa Tolmie-McGrane, who said a nun had broken her arm in 1970, when she was eight, after finding her being sexually abused by a priest.

Sister Mary denied that any priest would have had an