A BOY aged six died 10 days after he was beaten by a nun at an orphanage, the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry has heard.
A witness, who cannot be named, told the inquiry his friend was kicked on the body and head by the Catholic sister.
The inquiry began the second phase of its hearings in Edinburgh on Tuesday. It is hearing evidence about institutions run by the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul.
The man said he was sexually abused by a nun and another member of staff and beaten for bed-wetting and not eating his food while living at Smyllum Park orphanage in Lanark, Lanarkshire.
The witness entered the orphanage in 1959 when he was aged around two, along with three brothers and a sister. He said beatings at the institution were routine, and that on one occasion when he was aged around six his friend was beaten after accidentally burning his hand while playing with a match.
He went on: “It was unfortunate but at that time the sister came around the corner and said, 'What’s wrong?' And I said, ‘He burned my hand’, and she just grabbed him and started hitting him and punching him.
“He was on the floor and she was kicking him on his body and his head. I said, ‘Please sister, please don’t hurt him’. She stopped when I lay on top of him.”
He said he next saw his friend in the sick room and the inquiry heard the boy was in hospital for around 10 days before he died.
An investigation earlier this year found that at least 400 children from Smyllum Park are thought to be buried in an unmarked grave at the town’s St Mary’s Cemetery.
The orphanage was home to more than 10,000 children between 1864 and 1981. Prosecutors have said there is no evidence that any crime has been committed at the orphanage in relation to the mass grave.
The witness told the inquiry he was sexually abused by both a nun and a female lay member of staff.
He said that in August 1965, when he was aged seven, he was moved to a St Vincent home in
Newcastle, and that he encountered abuse there too. Colin MacAulay QC, counsel to the inquiry, said: “In your statement you go on to say it was another place run by psychopaths.”
The witness said: “We had to go to the washrooms and I must have said something out of line. She pinned me up against the wall with a bread knife to my throat threatening to kill me and I genuinely thought I was going to die then – I was screaming.”
More than 60 residential institutions, including several top private schools, are being investigated by the inquiry, chaired by Lady Smith.
In opening statements to the inquiry, John Scott QC, senior counsel for In Care Abuse Survivors (Incas), said the name Smyllum will be “forever associated with suffering”.
Solicitor Gregor Rolfe, counsel for the Daughters of Charity, reiterated the apology made by the order at the conclusion of the first phase of the inquiry. Rolfe said: “There was a failure on the part of the order for which they apologise unreservedly.”
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