Fed: Victims of abuse by nuns tell story
CANBERRA, Aug 28 AAP - Lizzie Walsh says she was raped with a flagstick by a nun ata Brisbane orphanage in the 1950s and then told to clean up the pool of blood she wassitting in.
"There was a flagstick and the reason for it was to get the devil out of me," she said.
"After I'd been raped with the flagstick, I was sitting on the floor in a pool of blood.
"A nun found me and she said `What are you doing there?'
"She said to me `Get up off the floor, clean yourself up and get back to the classroomwith the other kids'."
Ms Walsh, who was speaking on ABC radio, is one of 17 women who in 1999 filed againstthe Corporation of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane and the Trustees of thePoor Sisters of Nazareth in the Queensland Supreme Court.
The church and the Poor Sisters of Nazareth have never admitted liability, insteadreaching an out-of-court settlement and making an apology.
Another victim, Bobbie Ford, also spoke of the abuse she suffered at the hands of thenuns at Nazareth House in Brisbane bayside suburb of Wynnum.
"From the time I was seven we were stripped naked, thrown on the bed on our stomachsand we'd be thrashed with a machine strap with staples in them," she said on ABc radio.
"That was one of the punishments and we got that every night."
Regional superior for the Sisters of Nazareth in Australia and New Zealand, Clare Breen,would not confirm or deny the claims of abuse but said the order was trying to heal theunhappy memories.
"Myself and the Sisters of Nazareth, we're very sad that some of these girls stillhave these unhappy memories and in the last six years we have tried to talk to the girls,we have tried to do what we can to help those girls to have those memories healed," shetold ABC radio.
"We have had professional people meet with these girls and come to an agreed amount of money.
"We have financed a number of girls to have counselling and that is what the girlshave asked us to do and that is what we have done.
"Because we have tried to help these girls does not admit that this happened."
AAP sm/ph/bwl
KEYWORD: NUNS DAYLEAD
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