An abuse survivor is seeking £750,000 compensation after being forced to eat her own vomit by nuns.
Annemarie McGuigan – who has waived her anonymity – was also beaten and locked in cupboards at Nazareth House children’s home in Aberdeen.
The 59-year-old has now launched legal proceedings against the Sisters of Nazareth, and hopes others will come forward too.
Sisters Alphonso and Hildegard have been exposed in criminal courts and the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry (SCAI) for their part in the sickening attacks on children in the 1960s and 70s.
But Ms McGuigan said that the pair cannot be allowed to say “sorry to the SCAI and walk away”.
She said: “They have to help victims repair their lives and they have to be seen to do it – otherwise none of us can ever truly get justice.”
Her ordeal at Nazareth House in Claremont Street in Aberdeen has left her too afraid to leave the house and unable to work, while battling depression and suicide attempts.
As an eight-year-old in 1969, Ms McGuigan was put in the care of the Catholic order, along with her sister and brother.
There she became a target of Sister Alphonso, who was convicted of four child abuse charges 20 years ago, and senior nun Sister Hildegard, who is now dead.
Ms McGuigan gave evidence against Alphonso – real name Marie Docherty – in the 2000 trial at Aberdeen Sheriff Court.
She also spoke as one of more than 20 former residents of Aberdeen’s Nazareth House care home at the SCAI.
Now she has publicly shared how the twisted nuns revelled in their sickening attacks – including force-feeding her own vomit to her.
Ms Guigan said: “They knew I hated stovies and couldn’t eat it – it’s like they enjoyed my suffering.
“At the end of the third day when I still couldn’t eat it, my arms and legs were pinned down by two members of staff and Sister Hildegard shovelled forkfuls of it into my mouth.
“It made me sick and everything that came up landed on the plate because of the way I was held.
“Sister Hildegard then shoved more forkfuls in and it only stopped after I ate everything – even the vomit.”
Ms McGuigan has also revealed she was locked in a cupboard for 12 hours for failing to properly polish her shoes and forced to stand on a table with a bar of soap in her mouth for saying the word “bloody”.
Sisters Alphonso and Hildegard also beat Ms McGuigan with their fists or with a wooden stick for not dressing “properly” for school lessons and for refusing to kiss the forehead of a dead nun before a funeral.
Between beatings she – and dozens of others – were called “scum” and told “no one loves you”, while girls were told they would go to Hell when they got their period.
Now living in Renfrewshire, Ms McGuigan has lost contact with her sister and has limited contact with her brother, who was separated from his siblings immediately because of gender rules at the home.
She spends her days obsessively cleaning her home, scared to leave the house, and has to rely upon a friend to walk her two dogs.
More than 10 years ago, Ms McGuigan began working towards a counselling qualification but was forced to stop when the coursework caused flashbacks to her own trauma.
A report, authored by SCAI chairwoman Lady Smith, concluded children living in the charity’s homes in Aberdeen, Cardonald, Lasswade and Kilmarnock led “miserable and fearful lives”.
Ms McGuigan added: “We were small and had little experience of the world but we all knew this wasn’t right.
“But what could we do? These were nuns – the very people the entire world believed would care for us.
“Yet we were tortured, ridiculed and isolated – and it was all by nuns. Smiling, evil nuns.
“They ruined my life and the lives of so many others.
“The Sisters of Nazareth cannot get away with this.”
A spokeswoman for Digby Brown Solicitors confirmed the firm was raising “multiple” court actions against the Sisters of Nazareth on behalf of survivors.
