NUNS ARRESTED OVER ABUSE AT ORPHANAGE
EXCLUSIVE: Police charge 12 over assaults on children in Scots care home run by religious order
POLICE have arrested nuns over allegations of abuse at a notorious children’s home.
They are among 12 people who have been charged following a major police investigation into Smyllum park orphanage in Lanark.
Claims of historical abuse at the home have come under scrutiny at the ongoing Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry (SCAI).
News of the arrests comes as SCAI chairman Lady Smith, a High Court judge, prepares to publish a damning report on Smyllum within days.
Last night, a police Scotland spokesman said: ‘Twelve people have been arrested and charged in connection with the non-recent abuse of children.
‘As inquiries are continuing, it would be inappropriate to comment further.’
It is understood those arrested within the past few weeks include nuns and former lay members of staff at the now-closed institution, which was run by the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de paul, a Catholic order. Former residents of the home have
told the SCAI during hearings in Edinburgh how nuns beat them, forced them to eat vomit and ritually humiliated them for bed-wetting.
One recalled ‘Satanic’ abuse and another claimed a child may have died after being left naked in the rain for three hours as a punishment.
Another ex-resident compared the Daughters of Charity, who ran the Catholic institution until it closed in 1981, to Nazi concentration camp commandants.
The SCAI also heard a boy of six allegedly beaten by a nun days before his death may have struggled to recover from an infection as a result of the ‘trauma’.
Professor Anthony Busuttil, a forensic pathologist who worked on the Lockerbie and Dunblane tragedies, told the inquiry last year that Sammy Carr was underdeveloped and may have been malnourished.
The inquiry has previously been told the boy was kicked by a nun ten days before he died in 1964.
In January, the nun in charge of the order offered its ‘deepest and most sincere apologies’ to anyone abused in its care.
At the SCAI, Sister Ellen Flynn, who is not accused of abuse, said the allegations at Smyllum are ‘totally against’ everything the order stands for.
In the next few weeks, Lady Smith is expected to publish a report on the SCAI’s Smyllum ‘case study’, which will include findings on the extent of abuse.
Earlier this year, Lady Smith said she would decide whether the claims were substantiated on the ‘balance of probabilities’.
This is a lower threshold than the stipulation for a charge being proven beyond ‘reasonable doubt’ in criminal courts.
Commenting on Smyllum last night, a Crown Office spokesman said: ‘As part of our response to the SCAI, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) instructed Police Scotland to carry out investigations into allegations of abuse at care institutions in Scotland.
‘As a result of those investigations, COPFS received information from Police Scotland which has been considered by our expert team, in consultation with Police Scotland, and it has been determined that further investigation is required into allegations against a number of individuals relating to the Daughters of Charity.
‘It would not be appropriate to comment further at this time.’
Meanwhile, a separate police investigation is under way over
‘Victims’ needs are central’
claims of abuse involving the Sisters of Nazareth, a Catholic order that came under investigation by the SCAI earlier this year.
The Mail has been told there is an ongoing police investigation into people associated with the order, which ran homes across Scotland where abuse has been widely reported. Detective Chief Inspector Sarah Taylor, of the National Child Abuse Investigation Unit at Police Scotland, said: ‘Investigating child abuse offences is highly complex and every care is taken to ensure that inquiries are proportionate, appropriate and that victims’ needs are central to our investigations.
‘If you or anyone you know has been a victim of abuse or wishes to report abuse, you should feel confident in reporting to Police Scotland. We will listen and we will take action regardless of when or where the abuse occurred.’
In June, a nun who denied slapping and force-feeding children in her care at a trial nearly 20 years ago admitted her guilt for the first time. Marie Docherty, who was convicted of four charges of child cruelty in 2000, escaped with an admonishment after a trial at Aberdeen Sheriff Court.
But the 77-year-old – also known as Sister Alphonso – admitted to the SCAI she had carried out a catalogue of child abuse at Nazareth House homes in Aberdeen and Lasswade, Midlothian, in the 1960s and 1970s.
The details of the nun’s identity and convictions were revealed after Lady Smith lifted a restriction order banning their release. Docherty, who wept as she gave evidence, conceded she may have caused extra pain for victims by taking 18 years to admit her guilt.
Last year, it emerged that the Sisters of Nazareth order was facing more than 400 allegations of abuse from former residents.
The Crown Office said it could not comment on the Sisters of Nazareth probe.