Man narrates how he was raped by a Nun who later had his baby

Edward, now a grandfather aged 76, fell victim to then 27-year-old Irish nun Sister Mary Conleth, real name Bessie Veronica Lawler, in the 1950s. She worked in the laundry room and asked her superiors for his assistance.

But the almost daily abuse ended abruptly when the nun fell pregnant and was sent back to Ireland in disgrace. Edward was sent to a hostel in Cumbria.

He has no idea what happened to the child he fathered and Sister Conleth is now dead.

Edward,76 is seeking justice

But he has decided to waive his right to anonymity to expose the abuse and encourage fellow victims to confront their demons. 

He said: “I went through hell for the majority of my life, trying to hide what happened to me. Nobody should go through that.”

Edward, who now lives in Carlisle, was just 10 and known as Billy when he was put in the home after being neglected by his parents. Initially, he had viewed his new home as a blessing.

“It was nice to be somewhere warm, where I was eating food and having hot baths,” he said.

“My first years there created some great memories for me. I was a great student, I sang in the choir, I could read perfect Latin and was even playing football – being touted by the local football clubs.”

But his new life turned sour when Sister Conleth arrived around 1953 and sought him out.

Edward said: “I had barely started work there when it happened. I was still 12. She’d pull my trousers down. She’d push me to the floor and would lay on top of me.

“I hated doing it but she said she’d tell on me if I didn’t, that I’d been a bad boy and I’d be punished. She’d talk dirty to me. I would not let her kiss me. I thought babies were made by men kissing women.”

By the time Edward was 14 he was allocated his own room – something unheard of at the home. But the reason soon became apparent when Sister Conleth started paying him night visits.

In April 1956 the abuse came to a sudden end when the nun declared she was pregnant. Edward said: “I didn’t even understand how I got her pregnant because I never kissed her. We were more naive back then.”

He was put onto a train to Cumbria after Christmas with just a small suitcase and was met by a man claiming to be his grandfather, who took him to another home. He never saw the man again.

Over the years he was contacted by the Mother Superior from his former home, Mother Mary Osmund, but he now realises she was only keeping tabs on him to make sure Sister Conleth did not get in touch.

After a short period, he was adopted by a family and began a chaotic adult life, marred by alcoholism. He married and had two children but it failed because he was unable to build “normal relationships”.

Desperate and searching for a routine, Edward joined the Army, signing up with the Royal Artillery, but left after five years in 1969 because he developed an ulcer through drinking and was medically discharged.

He added: “I couldn’t ever settle. Every single day I thought about the abuse, I started drinking to try and blot everything out. I never told anybody what happened to me, not even my wife.”

It was only in 1998 that Edward decided it was time to confront his past after reading about clerical abuse. But he struggled to find anyone to listen. 

It was only when he discovered a survivor group through a leaflet at the local library in 2010 that his life started to change.

Now Edward is seeking justice for sexual abuse at the hands of a nun when he was a child.
Express

*There's no telling how sexual abuse or any kind of abuse for that matter badly affects the life of its victim. It's really terrible.