Former nuns and retired support worker punished for cruelty in children's homes

Former nuns and retired support worker punished for cruelty in children's homes One ex nun in the "harrowing" Nazareth House homes case - Carol Buirds - was jailed for 15 months after punching, kicking, and locking up children in the 1970s. Image:Eileen McElhinney and Dorothy Kane. Pics: Crown Office Image:Eileen McElhinney being interviewed by police. Pic: Crown Office Image:Dorothy Kane being interviewed by police. Pic: Crown Office Thursday 15 January 2026 15:47, UK Two former nuns and a retired support worker have been sentenced for abusing vulnerable youngsters at children's homes in Scotland more than 40 years ago. Carol Buirds, 75, Eileen McElhinney, 78, and Dorothy Kane, 68, subjected several victims to cruel and unnatural treatment at two homes run by the Catholic order Sisters of Nazareth. The offences took place at Nazareth House homes in Lasswade, Midlothian, and Kilmarnock, East Ayrshire, between 1972 and 1981. During a five-week trial at Edinburgh Sheriff Court last year, jurors heard how Buirds, known as Sister Carmel Rose, rubbed urine-soaked bedding on children and forced food and soap into their mouths. The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) said she also locked one child in a cupboard and another in an unlit cellar without access to water. Buirds also repeatedly assaulted children, often using implements such as a belt, a wooden ruler, and a stick. In his sentencing statement, Sheriff Iain Nicol said: "The worst examples included repeatedly striking children's heads off walls, striking them with belts, sticks, rulers and slippers, punching and kicking them to the head and body, forcing soap into their mouths, locking children in cupboards, force-feeding them, rubbing urine-soaked bedding into the heads of children, forcing them to sit in cold baths and washing them with a floor brush. "On many occasions the children were injured and on one occasion severely injured." McElhinney, who was known as Sister Mary Eileen, violently assaulted children and also forced them to stand in cold showers and sit in cold baths. The COPFS said she used a hairbrush to hit one child on the buttocks and hurt another with a metal comb, refusing to stop brushing his hair despite him being in pain. Sheriff Nicol said: "The worst examples of your offending involved striking and punching children on the body, causing one to fall to the ground, repeatedly kicking and jumping on a child's body, forcing children to take a cold shower or sit in a cold bath, seizing children by their clothing, hair or arms and dragging them as well as repeatedly slapping them. "Suffering and injury were caused by you." Kane was convicted of repeatedly grabbing a boy, including by the hair, and restraining him by forcing her knees onto his chest. She also failed to intervene when witnessing another member of staff assaulting the child and forced a second youngster into a cupboard before locking him in. The victims, who are all now adults, were aged between five and 14 when the abuse began. Sheriff Nicol said the victim...

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