Former
residents of the Catholic Nazareth order's homes say they suffered
appalling, systematic cruelty. Special investigation by Barry Wood. FOR
MORE than 100 years, the Poor Sisters of Nazareth cared for children in
the order's dozens of homes across Britain. Orphans, abandoned babies
and children deemed uncontrollable or accused of petty crimes were all
put in the hands of the nuns who, to the outside world, epitomised
kindness and compassion.
But today,
many of those who were in the sisters' care have come forward to claim
that, behind the locked doors of Nazareth House (all the homes had this
name), the nuns maintained a ruthless regime. Beatings and acts of
extreme cruelty were commonplace, they say, and together with the
spartan existence in the home, gave them lives of utter misery.