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United Kingdom: Scotland
Tuesday
September 19, 2000
GMT 15:33

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 TO 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 the 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 washhouse, 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.