Nuns Accused of Physically Abusing Girls at School in 1970s Cleared

STV
May 22, 2013

http://local.stv.tv/glasgow/226395-anne-kenny-and-agnes-reville-cleared-of-dalbeith-abuse-cleared/

The pair of nuns were cleared of abuse allegations following a trial.

Two nuns accused of physically abusing pupils at a residential school in the 1970s have been cleared.

Anne Kenny and Agnes Reville were both acquitted after a trial at Paisley Sheriff Court on Wednesday.

They had been accused of assaulting eight girls at Dalbeath Approved School in Bishopton, Renfrewshire, during the 1970s.

The trial had previously heard from former pupils who claimed the nuns had attacked them and placed them in a "punishment room" at the facility.

Kenny, 79, was known as Mother Rosaria at the time she was working at the school while 77-year-old Reville was identified as Mother Martin.

The trial over the alleged abuse began last month and had heard from former pupils who claimed the nuns had hit them with a riding crop, among other items.

The charges against them were found not guilty.

Sheriff Susan Sinclair told the jury of eight women and seven men: "You have clearly given this case a lot of careful consideration."

The nuns told the jury the only punishment carried out at the school was to put pupils in a detention room for bad behaviour. Any girl sent there, they said, was monitored and given food and water. Other former pupils came forward to say how the nuns had turned their lives around.

However, six of the former inmates told a very different story. They claimed that they were dragged to the detention room and spoke of being beaten with a tiding whip and a carpet beater.

One of the alleged victims, Catherine Logan, now 57, claimed that nuns from the school abused her during her time there between 1969 and 1971.

Mrs Logan told Paisley Sheriff Court that she was hit about 12 or 13 times - including with a riding crop - by Mother Rosaria. She also said that she was put in a punishment room and tied to a pipe and for days without food or water.

Kathleen Humphries, 56, another pupil at the school, told the court she had been hit with a carpet beater by Mother Rosaria in her office. She told prosecutor Douglas Hamilton: "She battered me about the body with it every couple of days. She threw me across the room and hit me with the carpet beater when I was on the floor. I was screaming."

Miss Humphries asked if there was any reason for this and replied: "I was trying to run away." She also claimed that she was shut in a cupboard in Mother Rosaria's office twice.

A third woman, Elizabeth Howell, 58, said the Mother Rosaria, who was head teacher of the approved school, struck her on the body and locked her in a toilet for a week. Another three women Barbara Young, 58, Lucille Cope, 57, and Patricia Timothy, 57, said they were assaulted by Mother Martin.

Ms Young claimed that Mother Martin dug her fingernails into her body and pulled her by her hair and dragged her into a room against her will, leaving her there without food. Ms Cope told the court she was slapped and punched about the head and body, as well as being hit on the legs and body with a ruler.

Ms Timothy said she was struck on the face by Mother Martin's hand and knocked to the ground. Then she told the court Mother Martin knelt on top of her and squeezed her face before dragging her by the hair along a corridor.