Witness speaks of abuse at Girls' home

A woman who was in a Jersey girls' home in the late 1950s claims a child there was punished by being 'put in a room overnight with a dead nun'.

The woman - now in her early 60s - was speaking at the Jersey Care Inquiry today.

The witness, whose identity has been protected and is being called 'Mrs A', said the girl was around the same age as her, six years old, when the punishment happened at the Sacre Coeur girls' home.

Mrs A said the nuns who ran the home did not care about the children and it was a 'strict regime'.

She said: "The worst punishment was that I was told by a girl she was put in a room with a dead nun overnight."

She also described other punishments such as having sheets pulled up over their heads so they couldn't move and having to eat meals in a toilet.

She said: "You would talk and you were taken away and put in what I call a toilet area and locked in there and you were made to eat your dinner in there."

She added: "The nuns overall did not care about the children."