CHILD abuse should be discussed openly, according to a victim who claims she has suffered at the hands of nuns.
The woman, now aged 55, asked not to be named, but said it was important to consider how the issue had been dealt with in the past so present-day society could learn from it. Alderney-born, she was sent with her older sister to Jersey’s Sacre Coeur Convent in 1957 after their parents had separated.
‘When people say about punishments being different back then, they are missing the point,’ said the woman. ‘During our time there I can remember being dragged out of my cot on a number of occasions due to bed-wetting and thrown into a room at the end of our dormitory with just a pillow and wet nightie and left in this locked room all night in the dark with no lighting. The window was covered so that the room was in complete darkness. They would leave you there all night.’
Another punishment, she alleged, was to be dragged by the knickers up a flight of stairs so harshly that the material cut into the base of the spine.
She claimed she was taken to a row of wash basins on the landing, one of which would be filled with cold water, and that her head was held under until she was gasping for air.
‘This sort of thing you see nowadays on gangster films,’ she said.
The woman also spoke of being left only stale bread to eat and being force-fed fat, which she vomited up.
‘I thought, who is going to believe that nuns could be so cruel?,’ she said. ‘In small societies, the reason these things get brushed under
the carpet is that they can do damage to families and businesses.’
The woman said the treatment she and her sister had endured was like ‘something out of Oliver Twist’.
‘But you wouldn’t believe it could happen in real life,’ she said.
Jersey’s health department said all child abuse-related enquiries should be referred to the police.
A spokesman for the Roman Catholic Bishop of Portsmouth said this morning that he hoped that the woman had gone to the police, with whom the diocese would cooperate fully. The Sacre Coeur nuns had not, he said, been part of the diocese.
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