British clerical, other child abuse

This video from Britain says about itself:

‘They would whack you with a crucifix‘ – BBC Stories

15 September 2017

Theresa Tolmie-McGrane says she was abused from the age of six at a Catholic-run orphanage in Lanark in the 1960s and 1970s.

She describes more than a decade of physical, sexual and mental abuse at Smyllum Park Orphanage. A BBC investigation has uncovered new evidence that more than 400 children who died at Smyllum are now thought to be buried in a mass grave in a nearby cemetery.

Produced by Judy Fladmark, filmed by Emily France and edited by Joshua Hollis.

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

Woman reveals decade of horror at hands of nuns

Saturday 16th September 2017

A WOMAN who allegedly suffered a decade of brutal abuse at an orphanage run by nuns has described her ordeal.

Theresa Tolmie-McGrane told the BBC of her mistreatment in the 1970s at Smyllum Park Orphanage in Lanark, which is being examined by the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry.

A priest started to sexually abuse her when she was eight, two years after she arrived there.

Ms Tolmie-McGrane, who now works as a psychologist in Norway, said: “Every child was beaten, punished, locked in a dark room, made to eat their own vomit, and I would say that most of us had our mouths rinsed out with carbolic soap.”

On one occasion, she said, a nun walked in to find the priest abusing her.

The woman said: “She got really angry at me. She yanked me by the left arm so hard and flung me across the room and called me a whore and told me to get out of there.

“I think in some ways it was worse than just sexual abuse because I was punished with the broken arm for doing something a priest had forced me to do.”

A spokesman for the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul, the Catholic society that ran the orphanage, said: “We would urge anyone who believes they have been a victim to contact the police, who will then work with our safeguarding team.

“We would like to offer sincere and heartfelt apology to anyone who suffered any form of abuse while at our facilities.”

The bodies of at least 400 orphans were buried in a mass grave at the town’s St Mary’s Cemetery, a BBC and Sunday Post investigation has found. …

More than 10,000 children passed through the orphanage between its opening in 1864 and closure in 1981.

This video from England says about itself:

Catholic priests’ victim: ‘The abuse was so common it became normal’

3 February 2016

Leslie Turner, a retired primary head teacher, was paid £17,000 in compensation by the Irish Christian Brothers, after claiming two priests from the Catholic Order sexually abused him at school in Sunderland in the 1960s.

The church has not accepted liability for the alleged abuse. Turner, now 66, has waived his anonymity in a film for the Guardian to allege he was molested from the age of 12 by two Irish Christian Brother teachers at St Aidan’s Roman Catholic Grammar School in Sunderland between 1961 and 1967. Both priests are long dead, but he sued after being diagnosed with delayed onset post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of what he said he suffered.

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

Abused kids denied cash for ‘consenting’

Saturday 16th September 2017

Children as young as 12 may still go without compensation

SEXUALLY abused children as young as 12 could still be denied compensation on the grounds they had “consented” under revised official guidelines revealed yesterday that were condemned by a Labour MP as “despicable.”

The Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) launched a review into its guidelines earlier this year amid concerns that victims of child grooming gangs were being refused payments, even when perpetrators had been imprisoned.

Although it is illegal to have sex with anyone under 16, CICA does not give payments to all victims.

Justice Secretary David Lidington told MPs last week that CICA’s internal guidelines would be changed so that victims of child grooming gangs could no longer be disqualified.

But the revised guidelines state that children can still be denied compensation on the basis that “consent ‘in fact’ is different from consent ‘in law’.”

The draft is reported to state: “The scheme recognises that there may be situations where a person aged under 16 has ‘in fact’ consented to sexual activity.

“Where the sexual activity is truly of the applicant’s free will no crime of violence will have occurred.”

It goes on to say that some children under the age of 12 could be deemed to have given consent.

“Where the child was 12 or under when the incident happened, we will presume that the child did not consent in fact unless the evidence to the contrary is very clear,” it states.

Rotherham MP Sarah Champion said the revised version was “despicable” and urged Mr Lidington to intervene.

“It’s basically saying that the state doesn’t believe you, that you’re likely to be a liar on this and that is entirely the wrong message to send out,” she blasted.

It was reported last week that Sammy Woodhouse, a victim of the Rotherham grooming gang scandal, had initially been denied compensation by the government body because it claimed she had consented.

Ms Woodhouse, whose evidence in court helped convict her attacker, described the revised guidelines as “absolutely disgusting.”

In response to the backlash, CICA said it was engaging with victim support groups and charities to ensure the revised guidance was “as robust as it possibly can be.”

“We want to be sure that we never get these decisions wrong. That’s why we are reviewing our staff guidance to make sure that we identify every instance where grooming could be a factor,” a spokesman said.