Smyllum Park: Nuns and carer jailed for abusing orphanage children

Two nuns and a care worker who abused vulnerable youngsters at a Scottish orphanage have each been jailed for three years.

Sister Sarah McDermott, 79, Sister Eileen Igoe, 79, and carer Margaret Hughes, 76, mistreated children at Smyllum Park in Lanark from 1969 until 1981 when it closed.

The orphanage has been at the centre of allegations of historical abuse.

The judge said he hoped the sentence would act as a deterrence to others.

During sentencing at Airdrie Sheriff Court, Sheriff Scott Pattison there was no alternative to prison for the three women.

He said: "I am satisfied that the focus of my sentences should be punishment and deterrence, to punish you for the crimes committed and to deter all who have care of young children from similar conduct now and in the future.

"As I said to you when you were found guilty, you failed in your duty of care to the children in Smyllum and fell far short of your moral calling and commitment."

The sheriff said the "lasting harm" and "the serious nature" of the offences meant only custodial sentences were appropriate.

He added that the sentences were shorter than they otherwise would have been on account of the women's ages and health.

A number of former residents told Airdrie Sheriff Court they had been mistreated at Smyllum during the six-week trial.

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One woman said she was beaten by McDermott, of London, after she reported witnessing her brother being sexually abused in a toilet in the orphanage.

She said volunteer worker Brian Dailey, who was later jailed for 15 years for abusing youngsters, molested the three-year-old in a cubicle.

But rather than investigate the abuse, McDermott slapped the girl and told her she was bringing her 'filthy home habits into a good Catholic place'.

McDermott also struck another girl with rosary beads and repeatedly struck her on the head and body.

Igoe, of Edinburgh, was convicted of abuse which included force feeding children and making one eat their own vomit as well as striking one boy on the head and body.

Hughes, of Lanark, seized one boy by the hair before striking him with her arm. She also forced a girl into a freezing bath and held her head under water.

Smyllum closed in 1981 and has been at the centre of allegations of abuse.

In 2017 Radio 4's File on 4 programme discovered evidence that at least 400 children who died at the orphanage were buried in unmarked graves.

The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry said in 2018 that youngsters had been sexually abused and beaten with leather straps, hairbrushes and crucifixes.

A report by Lady Smith, who is chairing the inquiry, said it was a place of "fear, threat and excessive discipline" and that children found "no love, no compassion, no dignity and no comfort" in Smyllum.