BRITAIN
BBC News
A woman from Sussex has spoken for the first time about the abuse she claims she suffered during her time at a Bexhill orphanage in the 1950s.
Judith Kelly said she and the other children were poorly fed and routinely beaten by nuns at the Nazareth convent.
On one occasion Mrs Kelly claimed she was blamed for the death of two young girls who accidentally drowned in the sea off the rocks at Gwynne Gap.
Mrs Kelly said writing her recently published memoirs had "eased her pain".
Marjorie Mitchell who was also at the convent with Mrs Kelly in 1953 told BBC South East today about the incident.
She said that when the two young girls died, the other orphans on the beach tried to rescue them using a human chain.
But while they desperately tried to help save them she said "the nuns just sat and prayed".
Posted by kshaw at March 20, 2005 08:28 AM