Woman tells of routine beatings at hands of nuns

Inquiry: Witness says she was abused mentally

Three sisters were beaten until they bled and called names on their first day at an orphanage, an inquiry has heard.

The claims were made by a woman in her 60s, who cannot be named, who lived at Nazareth House in Aberdeen from 1967.

Speaking at the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry, she told how nuns at the Catholic-run home put on a pretence of niceness when the sisters were dropped off by a social worker, but this changed as soon as they left.

The witness, who was the eldest and aged 10 at the time, while the youngest was a toddler, said: “We got up to the second floor and it just started, really quite severe.

“Hitting, punching, hitting you on your ears.

“We were Glasgow tinks, we were whores, we were sluts.”

The witness added that they were “battered” until they were left bleeding. She described a routine of physical and mental abuse throughout her time in care.

The inquiry heard that when she started her period aged 11 she was told by a nun she would “be dead by midnight”, so she and other children were left watching the clock that night waiting for her to die.

She described another instance where she says she was so badly beaten she started “foaming at the mouth”.

She said: “I was on the ground, I was foaming at the mouth and I know I was going in and out of consciousness.

“Kicking, kicking, kicking, kicking, banged my head off the radiator – that’s when I went down, my head was exploding.”

The witness said she was sent first to Nazareth House in Cardonald, Glasgow, which she believes to have been in 1965. On her experience in Aberdeen, she said: “That’s the place that broke me.”

Senior counsel to the inquiry, Colin MacAulay QC, told how one of the nuns had denied all the allegations made against her.

The woman said there were some nuns at the home who were nice and would stand up for her.

The inquiry before Lady Smith continues in Edinburgh on Tuesday.