A man has alleged at the Historical Institutional Abuse inquiry in Banbridge, Co Down, that as a boy in care he was struck on the hands more than 60 times by a nun wielding the handle of a hurley stick.

The man, who was in the care of the Sisters of Nazareth at Nazareth Lodge in Belfast from 1945 to 1953 when he was aged between 7 and 15 told the 92nd day of the inquiry on Monday about several incidents when he was allegedly hit by nuns.

He described what he said was his worst experience and recounted how he fought a psychological battle with one nun by refusing to show pain even though he was allegedly hit at least 66 times on the two hands.

The witness said he was struck after he was wrongly accused of damaging a jotter by biting into its cover. He said the nun “beat me in front of the entire class; she said he would beat me until I told the truth”.

He said he lost count after he was struck for the 66th time. He said he was counting the strikes because “I was fighting a battle in my head” with the nun.

Describing what he was thinking and feeling at the time he said, “I can’t say (to the nun) I done this because I had not done it. Actually I did not feel the physical pain because I felt, ‘I am going to win this, I am going to win this’”.

The witness said in the subsequent weeks he lost five finger nails as a result of the alleged beating.

In a statement, the Sisters of Nazareth said that the handle of a hurley stick was never used to mete out punishment.

The 77-year-old man also cited several incidents where he was allegedly beaten by another nun. He said on one occasion he was placed in charge of one of the dormitories and was blamed when another boy wet the bed. As punishment he said he (the witness) was placed in a bath of cold water with other boys instructed to pour buckets of cold water over his head.

When he got out of the bath the nun allegedly hit him with the handle of a stick. He added, “After the second hit I said, ‘That hurt, sister’. She then hit me in the groin, about six times in all, and the pain was unbearable.”

The witness also alleged the same nun used to get him out of bed by hitting him with the handle of a hurley stick and that on another occasion he was beaten by the same nun after a radiator leaked in the dormitory that he was in charge of. He claimed that when she got tired hitting him she instructed another boy to continue the beating.

He said the boy did “not want to do it but he would have got beaten if he had not done it”. The witness also claimed that on another occasion his head was cut when the nun hit him on the head with her keys.

The witness also denied a claim made by another man who was in Nazareth House that he had been sexually abused by the witness. The witness said there were a number of boys also in the home with his surname and that he was small whereas the alleged abuser was described as tall.

The witness said he wanted his family to be compensated for what he had suffered.

Another witness, a middle-aged man, alleged that while he had been beaten by two members of the domestic staff that he was never beaten by the nuns at Nazareth House. “I think fondly of the nuns. I am grateful for the care and support I got from them,” he told the inquiry.

The witness said he had never “witnessed any violence or abuse by nuns” in Nazareth House. “I was cared for and looked after by the nuns; I have had a good life,” he said.

The inquiry, which was set up in 2013 to investigate alleged child abuse in residential institutions in Northern Ireland over a 73-year period up to 1995, is currently examining abuse claims at Narareth House and Nazareth Lodge in Belfast. In all, 13 institutions are being investigated.

The inquiry was due to deliver its final report in January 2016 but has been granted a year longer to conclude its work because of the heavy workload.