Three nuns in dock at Edinburgh Sheriff Court charged with abuse at children's homes
Carol Buirds, Dorothy Kane and Eileen McElhinney are alleged to have assaulted and used cruel and unnatural treatment towards at least 27 children at the two homes run by the Catholic congregation the Sisters of Nazareth.
Buirds, 75, Kane, 67, and McElhinney, 78, appeared in the dock at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Thursday, where they pleaded not guilty to a total of 29 allegations on indictment.
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Buirds is facing 11 charges of cruel and unnatural treatment and eight of assault allegedly committed at Nazareth House in Lasswade, Midlothian, and Nazareth House in Kilmarnock.
The pensioner is claimed to have tortured and assaulted children under her care including rubbing urine-soaked bedding into their heads, forcing soap into their mouths and making another to chew on cigarettes.
Buirds, from Wallsend, Tyne and Wear, is facing allegations of making youngsters to take cold showers, forcing food into one child’s mouth causing them to vomit and then ordering them eat the sick.
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Hide AdProsecutors allege on one occasion the nun made a female child stand naked with her hands above her head while she was menstruating, remove bloodied sheets from her bed and throw them out of a window while other children watched on.
She is also said to have assaulted children at the two homes in Lasswade and Kilmarnock by striking and kicking them to the head and body and hitting them with a hairbrush and a slipper.
The abuse allegedly carried out by Buirds is said to have involved 18 victims, who cannot be identified, and been committed between September 1975 and May 1981.
Kane, from Lasswade, Midlothian, is facing three charges of cruel and unnatural treatment and one of assault allegedly carried out against four children between March 1980 and August 1981.
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Hide AdShe is alleged to have reported one child to staff members after supplying him with cigarettes in the knowledge he would be punished “with the result he was forced to drink washing up liquid and slapped on the head”.
The indictment also claims Kane dragged one child along a corridor and after kneeling on his chest she “failed to provide him access to medical attention” when he said was in pain.
McElhinney from Bishopbriggs, East Dunbartonshire, is alleged to have carried out four offences of cruel and unnatural treatment and two of assault against five children between November 1972 and May 1975.
The OAP is claimed to have caused children unnecessary suffering and injury to their health by committing acts including forcing youngsters to sit in a cold bath and striking them to their body.
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Hide AdMcElhinney is also facing one charge that she tied the hands of one boy behind his back and “putting him to bed thereby restricting his movement and placing him in discomfort and potential danger throughout the night”.
Sheriff Iain Nicol was told some evidence relating to the case is still to be released to the defence teams and set down a date in October this year for a trial that is expected to last around six weeks.