Child Abuse Inquiry to Probe Former Aberdeen Children’s Home

By Jon Hebditch
Press and Journal
April 7, 2017

https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/aberdeen/1215453/child-abuse-inquiry-to-probe-former-aberdeen-childrens-home/

Nazareth House

A national abuse probe will investigate a former Aberdeen children’s home run by Catholic nuns next year.

Nazareth House, on the city’s Claremont Street, was founded by six women from the Sisters of Nazareth in London in 1862 and was once home to more than 300 children.

But the home has been dogged by allegations of historical abuse by the nuns for more than twenty years.

Now the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry will investigate practices at institutions ran by the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul and the Sisters of Nazareth throughout Scotland.

Hearings into Nazareth House will begin in 2018.

Police probed the house in 1997 and investigated more than 40 complaints by former residents.

One woman claimed she had been beaten so hard she went deaf while a retired fisherman said he had been submerged in near boiling water by the sisters.

Speaking in 2000 Helen Howie, who lived in Nazareth House, said: “You couldn’t answer them back and you were terrified to sleep at night in case you wet the bed.

“In the morning you were beaten and thrown into a cold bath, then at dinner time you had to stand with your sheets on your head while the others played.”

By 2010 councillors approved plans to turn the house into flats which is how it remains today.

The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry was launched in October 2015 and is one of the most wide-ranging public inquiries ever held in Scotland, with full powers to compel witnesses to give evidence.

In a statement released yesterday the organisation said: “It is important for the inquiry to have as much information as possible before starting these parts of the second phase of hearings.

“If you have information or experiences which you would like the inquiry to consider as part of the hearings looking at establishments run by the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul or the Sisters of Nazareth, please contact our witness support team as soon as possible.”

A spokesman for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Aberdeen said: “The Diocese will cooperate with the inquiry and assist in any way it can.”

Anyone affected by practices at Nazareth House is urged to contact the inquiry on 0800 0929 300, or e-mail them at talktous@childabuseinquiry.scot

You can also write to SCAI, PO Box 24085, Edinburgh EH7 9EA.