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10 December 2014

​The Inquiry has today heard from a witness Mrs M who gave evidence anonymously about Sacre Coeur Children's Home.

Mrs M went to live there when she was 8 and said life was hard but the "world was a different place" in the 1950's.

She said the children were brought up by the nuns not to speak to each other. She left not being able to tell the time or answer a phone.

Her father had been prevented by nuns visiting on Christmas Day because it was not a Sunday. At another time she recalled not being able to see him for a month as a punishment for "talking at table or running on stairs."

Mrs M gave further details of the knitwear factory where children were sent to work.

More evidence was heard from a number of witnesses about abuse at Haut de la Garenne. This included a tranche of accounts about Ray Williams, a houseparent at the home. After one witness, 346, spoke about it, she found herself in trouble and was told to stop making things up.

Another witness, 209, told police in 2008 that she and others didn't speak up at the time because no-one would have believed them.

The hearings start again tomorrow at 10am.

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