Ex-nun "Denied Abuse at Boys" Home"

Belfast Telegraph
May 19, 2014

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/exnun-denied-abuse-at-boys-home-30285399.html

Sir Anthony Hart is chairing the public inquiry

A former nun interviewed by police investigating alleged abuse at a children's home in Northern Ireland has said she loved the young people, a public inquiry heard.

In the 1970s, the ex-nun worked at Termonbacca boy's home in Londonderry, run by the Sisters of Nazareth religious order, and admitted witnessing sexual acts. But the woman denied causing physical or sexual harm.

The treatment of young people, orphaned or taken away from their unmarried mothers, in residential homes run by nuns, brothers or the state is a key concern of the UK's largest ever institutional child abuse investigation being held in Banbridge, Co Down.

It is considering cases between 1922, the foundation of Northern Ireland, and 1995.

The former nun said: "I gave my best part of my life to caring for kids in Nazareth House and I loved every minute of it and I loved them.

"I cannot undo what people have said about me."

She was interviewed by police investigating assaults on children and said she did not beat one with a curtain rail.

"I would not treat a dog like that."

The panel chaired by retired High Court judge Sir Anthony Hart and established by Stormont's power-sharing devolved government has to decide whether children might have been physically or sexually abused or emotionally harmed through humiliation. Harm may also include simple neglect, not feeding or clothing people properly.

The inquiry has heard a litany of allegations from former residents at the Londonderry homes, including that children were made to eat their own vomit and bathe in disinfectant. They claimed they were beaten for bedwetting and had soiled sheets placed on their heads to humiliate them, witnesses told public hearings earlier this year.

Sister Brenda McCall, a senior member of the Sisters of Nazareth and speaking on behalf of the order, accepted that at times the nuns were understaffed but said they did the best they could.

She said there was no practice of calling a child by his or her number but figures were put on their clothes.

Sharing of bathwater reflected the cost of heating and the nun accepted that Jeyes fluid detergent, which could cause burning of the eyes, was used in the early days.