SCOTLAND
The Gazette
Published 2 May 2013
A GRANDMOTHER who was sent to Dalbeth Approved School in Bishopton aged 13 has told a jury “it was a hellhole worse than prison”.
Paisley Sheriff Court heard that 57-year-old Josephine Hanlon was sent to the school by a court in 1970 because she was outwith parental control.
In evidence she alleged that one of the nuns Mother Martin and a fellow nun forced her to drink some kind of liquid.
Miss Hanlon told the jury: “Mother Martin and another nun poured something liquid down my throat and I went to sleep. That happened more than once.”
The witness, who has convictions for crime of dishonesty and assault, also said that on one occasion Mother Martin and two other nuns dragged her to a punishment room and left her there for two or three days without anything to eat.”
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