Claims of Abuse at Orphanage ‘a Mystery’

By Mike Wade
The Times
June 14, 2017

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/claims-of-abuse-at-orphanage-a-mystery-0h89rfzgg

Lady Smith is chairing the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry

The head of a Catholic order that ran an orphanage notorious for its cruelty has claimed that allegations of child abuse there are shrouded in “mystery”.

Sister Ellen Flynn, the leader of the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul in Britain, said that the order “can find no evidence” of physical abuse of the children who lived at Smyllum Park House, Lanark.

Sister Flynn told the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry that she accepted that accusations had been made, saying she was “appalled to think something had happened” and was “very sorry”. The elderly nuns who survived from the 1950s and 1960s were nervous about the inquiry, she added.

Sister Flynn was giving evidence during phase 1 of the inquiry in Edinburgh, a period…