MOTHER-of-seven Marjorie Watkins has told of the catalogue of abuse she claims she suffered in a Catholic children's home, after one of its nuns appeared in court charged with cruelty.

MOTHER-of-seven Marjorie Watkins has told of the catalogue of abuse she claims she suffered in a Catholic children's home, after one of its nuns appeared in court charged with cruelty.

Emotionally-scarred Marjorie, 52, said she spent 14 years in hell while she was in the care of other nuns at the Sisters of Nazareth children's homes in Kilmarnock and Aberdeen.

She was not under the care of Sister Alphonso, who appeared in court this week, but says she found the regime to be equally as brutal.

Details of the abuse at the homes, including at a third home in Midlothian, only came to light after scores of victims came forward to report the regime of terror that existed in there.

Sister Alphonso, also known as Marie Docherty, appeared at the Aberdeen Sheriff's Court on Tuesday and was found guilty on four charges of cruel and unnatural treatment. Victims who suffered at the hands of Sister Alphonso, 58, gave evidence of their horrific ordeal, which included being beaten and force-fed.

Divorced Ms Watkins, a grandmother from Seymour Park Road, in Marlow, spent time at the homes between 1950 and 1964.

She told the Free Press: 'I was subjected to a brutal and terrifying regime where we were all beaten regularly and punched for no reason. I feel they have taken my childhood from me and I have suffered mental health problems all my life because of what I suffered there.'

Ms Watkins is in the process of bringing a case against the Superior General Sister Bernard Mary Murray, who is responsible for running the Sisters of Nazareth order in Britain; East Ayrshire Council, who had the initial duty of care over her and Aberdeen City Council, who had duty of care during her time at the home in Aberdeen.

She added: 'This case would at least give me some recognition, but nothing anyone says can change what has been done there or what it has done to me.'

Ms Watkins claims: 'We all lived by fear, we weren't fed or clothed properly. If we vomited the food we would be made to eat it and if they believed we had done something wrong we would be severely punished.

'Sometimes nuns would walk past and just punch you for nothing, or when you wet the bed you were bashed and made to sit with the sheet on your head.

'If they believed you had done something bad you would be dragged by the hair and made to kneel outside a nun's room on the floor boards all night. In the morning your knees would be bleeding and you were too scared to move so you would wet yourself and the knickers would be put on your head.'

Ms Watkins said that the ordeal she suffered had followed her throughout her life. She has difficulty forming relationships and mixing with people and so has a job ironing from home and is studying for a degree in Criminology with the Open University.

She added: 'It's not just the physical scars, it is the emotional scars that follow you all your life.'

Bishop of Aberdeen Mario Conti is due to issue a full statement once sentencing is finished. But in a statement about the allegations issued in 1998, he said the diocese was not directly responsible for Nazareth House but did support the sisters.

He added: 'Admittedly the regime was tough, but it has been pointed out already, the upbringing of children, even within families, was much stricter then than it is today.

'Nevertheless if any Sister acted harshly, even occasionally, she would have done so contrary to the practice of the Order and the great educational and caring tradition of the Catholic Church.'