Nun convicted of abuse denies wrongdoing in police interview | News

A former nun and a former support worker convicted of abuse in a children’s home have denied the crimes in newly released police statements.

Sisters Carol Buirds, 75, known as Sister Carmel Rose, and Eileen McElhinney, 78, known as Sister Mary Eileen, and former support worker Dorothy Kane, 68, were found guilty of subjecting several victims to cruel and unnatural treatment over nine years following a trial at Edinburgh Sheriff Court in November.

The crimes occurred at two homes in Lasswade, Midlothian, and Kilmarnock, East Ayrshire, which were run by the Catholic order the Sisters of Nazareth between the early 1970s and the early 1980s. The victims, now all adults, were between the ages of 5 and 14 when the abuse began.

During a five-week trial, police interviews of Kane and McElhinney were heard; this suggests both that the women denied their involvement and that they had any knowledge of a “criminal book”.

McElhinney was found guilty of five charges, including violent assault on young children, while Kane was found guilty of two charges of cruel and unnatural treatment for repeatedly grabbing a boy, including by the hair, and restraining him by pressing her knees to his chest.