Former nuns and retired support worker punished for cruelty in children’s homes

Two former nuns and a retired support worker have been sentenced for abusing vulnerable youngsters at children’s homes in Scotland more than 40 years ago.

Carol Buirds, 75, Eileen McElhinney, 78, and Dorothy Kane, 68, subjected several victims to cruel and unnatural treatment at two homes run by the Catholic order Sisters of Nazareth.

The offences took place at Nazareth House homes in Lasswade, Midlothian, and Kilmarnock, East Ayrshire, between 1972 and 1981.

During a five-week trial at Edinburgh Sheriff Court last year, jurors heard how Buirds, known as Sister Carmel Rose, rubbed urine-soaked bedding on children and forced food and soap into their mouths.

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) said she also locked one child in a cupboard and another in an unlit cellar without access to water.

Buirds also repeatedly assaulted children, often using implements such as a belt, a wooden ruler, and a stick.

In his sentencing statement, Sheriff Iain Nicol said: “The worst examples included repeatedly striking children’s heads off walls, striking them with belts, sticks, rulers and slippers, punching and kicking them to the head and body, forcing soap into their mouths, locking children in cupboards, force-feeding them, rubbing urine-soaked bedding into the heads of children, forcing them to sit in cold baths and washing them with a floor brush.

“On many occasions the children were injured and on one occasion severely injured.”

McElhinney, who was known as Sister Mary Eileen, violently assaulted children and also forced them to stand in cold showers and sit in cold baths.

The COPFS said she used a hairbrush to hit one child on the buttocks and hurt another with a metal comb, refusing to stop brushing his hair despite him being in pain.

Sheriff Nicol said: “The worst examples of your offending involved striking and punching children on the body, causing one to fall to the ground, repeatedly kicking and jumping on a child’s body, forcing children to take a cold shower or sit in a cold bath, seizing children by their clothing, hair or arms and dragging them as well as repeatedly slapping them.

“Suffering and injury were caused by you.”

Kane was convicted of repeatedly grabbing a boy, including by the hair, and restraining him by forcing her knees onto his chest.

She also failed to intervene when witnessing another member of staff assaulting the child and forced a second youngster into a cupboard before locking him in.

The victims, who are all now adults, were aged between five and 14 when the abuse began.

Sheriff Nicol said the victim impact statements made for “harrowing reading” as he paid tribute to the complainers’ “bravery and fortitude” in giving evidence in the case.

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The trio were found guilty in November and sentenced on Thursday.

Buirds was convicted of 13 charges, including eight counts of cruel and unnatural treatment, assault to severe injury, assault to injury, and three counts of assault.

Sheriff Nicol noted how some of her victims continue to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental health conditions due to the abuse.

He added: “Medication and other forms of treatment have been and still are required.

“Some speak to being suicidal, requiring one of the complainers to be in hospital for a year and left her mute for a period of five years.”

The sheriff added Buirds continues to deny any wrongdoing and has shown “no remorse whatsoever”.

Buirds, of Wallsend in Tyne and Wear, was jailed for 15 months.

McElhinney was convicted of five charges, including three counts of cruel and unnatural treatment and two counts of assault.

Sheriff Nicol stated: “These offences were committed at the beginning of your vocation as a nun when you were young and the social worker considers it may well be the case that you were highly susceptible to the influence of older and more experienced nuns.

“There has been no suggestion of ongoing offending in the last 45 to 50 years.

“Over that time, you have worked as a social worker and then as a volunteer, supporting vulnerable individuals.”

McElhinney, of Bishopbriggs in East Dunbartonshire, was handed a 12-month Probation Order with 240 hours of unpaid work.

She was also ordered to remain within her home address between the hours of 4pm and midnight for nine months.

Kane was convicted of two counts of cruel and unnatural treatment.

Kane, of Lasswade in Midlothian, was given a Community Service Order with 150 hours of unpaid work to be completed within nine months.

Faith Currie, procurator fiscal for Lothian and Borders at COPFS, said such abuse has “never been acceptable and should never have happened”.

She added: “Carol Buirds, Eileen McElhinney and Dorothy Kane were entrusted with the care of vulnerable children, but instead they betrayed that trust and inflicted lasting harm through their criminal actions.”