LONDON (ENGLAND)
BBC Radio
May 30, 2019
Some children at the Nazareth House orphanages in Scotland were subjected to sexual abuse of the “utmost depravity”, the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry has found.
Chairwoman Lady Smith said the children’s homes were places of fear, hostility and confusion.
Youngsters were physically abused and emotionally degraded “with impunity”.
The Sisters of Nazareth charity said it had apologised for any abuse that took place in its institutions.
Over 27 days last year, the inquiry heard evidence from former residents of four institutions in Aberdeen, Glasgow, Midlothian and Ayrshire.
‘What happened was wrong’
Helen Holland told the inquiry she suffered years of physical and emotional cruelty as a child at Nazareth House in Kilmarnock, where she was raped by a priest.
She welcomed the fact that Lady Smith had believed her evidence to the inquiry.
“It is almost as if she reached beyond me as an adult and spoke to the child inside, and said to that child: ‘This wasn’t your fault. This shouldn’t have happened. What happened was wrong.’
“That in itself is massive.”
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