NUNS who abused children at homes run by the Sisters of Nazareth were unsuited to work with young people, while staff took on too many children to care for them all properly, the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry heard yesterday.

The inquiry was told 257 former residents of the Catholic order’s four Scottish homes have started civil actions over alleged abuse, while an additional 147 have complained they suffered while in the sisters’ care.

Sister Anna Maria Doolan, the UK regional superior in charge of the Sisters of Nazareth, told the inquiry there had been complaints against all four Nazareth houses, in Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Glasgow and Kilmarnock.

She said the congregation had been guilty of wanting to help too many vulnerable or destitute children. Staffing ratios at the homes were described as meaning one nun was responsible for up to 20 children, although figures presented to the inquiry appeared to show the ratios were sometimes much higher, particularly in Aberdeen.

Sister Doolan said: “With the gift of hindsight, these large numbers were probably too big for the sisters looking after them.

“Sisters were put in a position where they had a lot of children to look after and weren’t able to give them all the attention and care that they should.”

However, pressed by the inquiry’s senior counsel Colin Macaulay, QC, she accepted this lack of adequate care had sometimes amounted to child abuse.

He asked: “There was abuse, is that your position? You accept it now.”

Sister Doolan replied: “Yes.”

She said allegations had been made many years after the events had taken place and records did not allow the order to assess the extent of any abuse.

One member of the order, known as Sister Alphonso, was convicted in September 2000 of cruelty to four children in Nazareth House in Aberdeen, with abuses including force feeding, beating a child with a hairbrush and throwing another child against a radiator.

Some former residents have made even more serious allegations.

Among those to have given evidence was Jim Buckley, of the survivors group Incas who fought for a public inquiry into historic child abuse.

Mr Buckley spent seven years at the home where he and his four younger brothers were regularly beaten.

Sister Doolan said the number of complaints should be seen against the fact some 14,766 children had been looked after in Scotland since the order began providing care for girls and babies in Aberdeen in 1862.

In a report to the inquiry, the order apologised, saying: “Where any child was abused then the congregation apologises unreservedly for that.”

“Care was provided by sisters who had little training and were often still young.” and inexperienced and oversight of the groups of sisters was not structured or pro-actively monitored.”

Sister Doolan said some nuns had been required to serve in the order’s children’s homes despite a lack of aptitude for childcare. She said: “I’m sure some of those sisters weren’t maybe suitable for looking after children – that wouldn’t have been their preferred option.”The inquiry continues