Witness Waives Anonymity at Ni Abuse Inquiry

RTE News
February 12, 2014

http://www.rte.ie/news/2014/0212/503867-ni-abuse-inquiry/

Kate Walmsley is giving evidence at the inquiry in Banbridge

Kate Walmsley, 57, from Derry alleged that she had been sexually abused by two priests while she was a resident of the home run by the Nazareth Sisters in Derry.

In the course of her testimony she described how, as an eight-year-old, after she had been sexually abused, she was put into the weekly bath with Jeyes Fluid in the water.

She said the stinging inside was worse than any labour pains.

Ms Walmsley alleged that she had been physically, emotionally and verbally mistreated by nuns and older girls at the Nazareth Home during the period of almost six years that she spent there.

She told the inquiry that she felt the victims of abuse were entitled to financial compensation and was critical of the idea of a monument at the end of the Peace Bridge in Derry as "the whole of Northern Ireland was falling over memorials."

It emerged during her evidence that the Derry Diocese had raised the issue of mistaken identity in relation to one of the priests, named by Ms Walmsley, in relation to her sexual abuse allegations.

She also confirmed during her evidence that she has an ongoing civil action against the Sisters of Nazareth Order who were in charge of the Derry home.