Nuns' helper jailed for sex abuse

A former helper at a Nazareth House children's home in Lasswade has been jailed for six years after he admitted sexually abusing two boys.
Peter Blaney, 53, from Kilsyth, Lanarkshire, was sentenced on 1 September, but a ban was placed on reporting until the end of the Sister Marie Docherty trial.

Marie Docherty, also known as Sister Alphonso, was found guilty on Tuesday of four charges of cruelty against children at Nazareth House homes in Lasswade and Aberdeen.

Blaney admitted at the High Court in Edinburgh that he regularly abused two brothers at the Lasswade home between August 1969 and February 1972.

He had been a resident at the home, which was run by nuns from the Order of the Sisters of Nazareth.

When he was 22, the mother superior allowed him to stay there four days a week to help out.

The two brothers Blaney admitted abusing arrived at the home in 1968.

The older brother, who was nine at the time, told police how he was regularly abused after the nuns had gone to bed.

Blaney would take him into his bed, strip off his pyjamas, and carry out sexual acts, before taking the boy back to his own bed.

The court heard that the victim learned to "switch off" during his ordeals, which happened about twice a week.

'Secret' attacks

He also tried to run away from Nazareth House a number of times.

Blaney told the boy that what was happening was "a secret".

The younger brother, who was only seven, was involved in incidents away from the dormitory.

Once, while Blaney was molesting the boy in the wash house, a nun knocked on the door demanding to know where the helper was.

The boy later said he felt terrified as Blaney gestured to him to keep quiet.

The youngster was also pulled into bushes by Blaney while he and other boys were swimming in a river.

When the nuns told him that he and his brother were leaving the home, he cried with relief.