Former Children's Home Resident Called Product of Satanic Union, Inquiry Hears

By Henry McDonald
The Guardian
January 29, 2014

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jan/29/former-childrens-home-resident-told-product-of-satanic-union-abuse-inquiry-termonbacca

The chairman of the historical institutional abuse inquiry, Sir Anthony Hart, is pictured on the first day of hearings in Banbridge, Northern Ireland. Photograph: Paul Faith/AFP/Getty Images

A former resident of a children's care home in Derry, Northern Ireland, was told he was evil and had been born of a satanic relationship, the largest UK inquiry into institutional child abuse has heard.

The witness said a priest labelled him the product of such a union because his mother was unmarried.

He told the historical institutional abuse inquiry on Wednesday that he became "zombie like" during and after he left the Termonbacca home run by the Sisters of Nazareth.

The man, now 65, confronted the priest in the 1950s about maltreatment after leaving the home and was told "you and the other orphans are bastards. You are the product of an evil and satanic relationship. You never had a chance."

On hearing this, the witness said: "That was the day I left the Catholic church."

In a third day of witness evidence against nuns and priests at two Derry care homes, the latest witness told the inquiry at Banbridge courthouse: "The truth is setting me free today more than this commission knows. I have come here to tell the truth and as I am reaching out, I am reaching out in healing and trying to forgive but at this moment I cannot.

"I have waited 65 years to say this. When I was reared by the Sisters of the Congregation of Nazareth it was equivalent to being reared by the Taliban such was their sadism, their lack of empathy, their fundamentalism, their lack of dignity to the little helpless boy."

He said that during his time at Termonbacca he was beaten, sexually abused and sometimes slept in urine soaked sheets because he lived in constant fear.

The inquiry, which will last until June 2015 and hear from more than 430 witnesses, will examine 13 care homes, orphanages and other institutions that operated in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 1995.

At the beginning of this week senior counsel for the inquiry, Catherine Smith QC, said that among the witness statements were allegations that nuns made ill children eat their vomit as a punishment. Another anonymous witness described the nuns' violent behaviour towards children in their care as psychotic.

Children were also beaten with sticks, canes and kettle flexes as well as forced to work on farms and in the care homes' laundries instead of being sent to school, witnesses have told the inquiry.