A former nun who abused vulnerable young people at children's homes in Scotland has been jailed for 15 months.

Carol Buirds, 75, was found guilty of causing children unnecessary suffering and injury when she worked at homes run by the Catholic order the Sisters of Nazareth between 1972 and 1981.

Another former nun, Eileen McElhinney, 78, was given a probation order and 240 hours of unpaid work over the abuse, while retired support worker Dorothy Kane, 68, was also given 150 hours of community service following a trial at Edinburgh Sheriff Court last month.

A survivors' group described the attacks as an "abuse of status, power and trust".

All of the offences took place over a nine-year period between 1972 and 1981.

They were committed at Nazareth House homes in Lasswade, Midlothian and Kilmarnock, East Ayrshire, and at an unknown address in Dunbar, East Lothian.

Jurors were told how Buirds, of Wallsend, Tyne and Wear, had struck, punched and kicked children in her care, forced soap and food into their mouths and locked one victim inside an unlit cellar without any food or water during a campaign of abuse.

They also heard Buirds, who was known as Sister Carmel Rose, rubbed urine-soaked bedding on the foreheads of children and assaulted others with implements including a belt, a stick, a wooden ruler and a slipper.

She was found guilty of a total of 13 charges of abuse, but was cleared of five others - four of which were not proven.

McElhinney, of Bishopbriggs, East Dunbartonshire, was found guilty of five charges - of assault and using cruel and unnatural treatment - towards children during her time at Nazareth House in Lasswade between 1972 and 1975.

The trial heard how the former Sister Mary Eileen punched one child and kicked and jumped on the body of another.

Meanwhile, Kane, who was employed as a support worker, dragged one child along a corridor and restrained him by placing her knees on his chest.

Kane, of Lasswade in Midlothian, also forced one child into a cupboard and locked the door while caring for children between 1980 and 1981.

She also failed to intervene when she witnessed a member of staff assaulting a boy.

Victims 'reclaimed power'

The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry, which is still ongoing, has previously heard evidence of widespread abuse at orphanages run by the Sisters of Nazareth.

Helen Holland, of the In Care Abuse Survivors group, said the three women had "tried to hide" behind a time bar which no longer applies in child abuse cases.

She said: "These women were not old when the abuse of children was happening.

"The abuse was deliberate, an abuse of status, an abuse of power and trust also.

"Survivors' main reason for coming forward and sharing the experiences they had in care is to ensure that children in care today have greater protection and their voices are heard with immediate action if abuse is being disclosed."

She added: "Winning this legal battle lets the child reclaim their own power back and hopefully close the page on this chapter of their lives once and for all." (BBC)

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