London - A woman yesterday told a court she was forced to kiss a nun's feet to get permission to go swimming. Mrs Helen Cusiter, now 43, also told Aberdeen Sheriff's Court that she had to kneel in a corridor overnight while at the children's home and was "battered" two or three times a week.
Mrs Cusiter was giving evidence in the trial of Ms Marie Docherty (58) who is also known as Sister Alphonso within the Roman Catholic order of the congregation of the Poor Sisters of Nazareth. She faces 23 charges of cruel and unnatural treatment of girls at Nazareth House, Aberdeen, and Nazareth House in Lasswade, Midlothian, between 1965 and 1980.
Mrs Cusiter, who lived at Nazareth House in Aberdeen from 1967 to 1971, during the time she was aged 10 to 14, said Sister Alphonso would pick on children and "batter" them up to three times a week.