Girl ‘jumped to her death after nun’s battering’

Inquiry: Ex-home resident tells of punishments

A former children’s home resident has told an abuse inquiry that a girl jumped from a building to her death after getting “battered” by a nun.

Anne Marie Carr, 64, who has waived her right to anonymity, attended Smyllum Park in Lanarkshire between 1960-64 along with her brother, Samuel, before going to Nazareth House in Kilmarnock after his death.

She told the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry in Edinburgh yesterday that a girl aged 10 or 11 died after jumping from a fire escape at the East Ayrshire home because she had “taken too much of a beating”. She said: “(The nun) had taken her up the stairs and battered her, told her to go to her bed. We were still out playing. Somehow the fire escape was open. She must’ve taken too much of a beating and threw herself out the front of the building.”

She said police were called as the girl had died.

The inquiry also heard Ms Carr and other residents were violently punished by a nun and staff at the home for wearing “convent clothes” to a party at school. She said their heads were “banged off the lockers” and they were “kicked in the back, kicked in the face”.

She added: “We were screaming, but they didn’t stop.”

The inquiry previously heard her brother died of a brain haemorrhage aged six following an e.coli infection, which he could have caught by touching a dead rat.

Another witness, who cannot be named, told how staff tried to sexually abuse him at the Kilmarnock orphanage.

He was at the care home between 1968-70. The man, now in his late 50s, said a worker at the orphanage tried to abuse him when he was 10.

He said: “He tried to make me do things with his penis, tried to put it in my hand and tried putting my head down.

“I seen it happen a few times (to others). I reported it to the nuns. All they said was ‘don’t tell anyone else, we will sort this out’ and the priest reassured me this would be sorted.”

He added that police were not involved.

The witness also said nuns made him wear shoes on the wrong feet because they pointed inwards.

The inquiry, before Lady Smith, continues today. ● ● ●

‘VIOLENCE’: The inquiry heard of 1960s abuse claims at the former Smyllum Park Orphange, in Lanarkshire