NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

BY MICHAEL MCHUGH – 30 JANUARY 2014

Witnesses at the inquiry into institutional abuse have described how the sadistic and brutal treatment they suffered at the hand of the nuns supposed to care for them had destroyed their later relationships with women.

One former St Joseph’s resident testified that he ran away from Termonbacca but was recovered time after time.

One of the Sisters of Nazareth smirked and said: “Welcome back, your majesty”, the witness said.

“Then the beatings would start.”

He never married, and attributed this “life sentence” of loneliness to women in his childhood who brutalised him.

Another victim said his Christmas presents “disappeared”.

“You had no real personal possessions, none.”