A former children's home resident yesterday described being force-fed her own vomit by a nun who was caring for her.

The nun, Marie Theresa Docherty, known as Sister Alphonso, denies 23 charges of cruel and unnatural treatment, including forcing two girls to kiss dead nuns and force-feeding Helen Cussiter.

The alleged offences are said to have happened in homes run by the Catholic church in Aberdeen and Midlothian.

Mrs Cussiter, 43, arrived at the Nazareth House children's home in Aberdeen as a young child in September 1967 and claimed the cruelty started on day one.

She told a jury at Aberdeen Sheriff Court how at mealtimes there was a scramble for chairs incorporating drawers where children could hide the food they could not bear to eat.

She said on some occasions a member of staff held her arms behind her back and Sister Alphonso held her nose which forced her to open her mouth to breathe. Then, she said, Sister Alphonso put food into her mouth.

"I would be gagging and choking and sometimes sick. I was being sick back onto the plate and Sister Alphonso carried on picking it up with a fork and putting it back in."

This would go on, sometimes, until the pie was completely cleaned off the plate or until someone else who was not scared of Sister Alphonso called a halt, she claimed.

Earlier Mrs Cussiter had told how she and four brothers and sisters arrived terrified at the Claremont Street home. They were stripped and put into a bath containing Jeyes Cleaning Fluid.

The disinfectant was also poured over their hair to kill lice which none of them had, she claimed.

She and her two younger sisters slept in the same room in three separate beds but the two little ones constantly wet the bed.

"Every morning the beds were checked by the nuns. They would come in and put their hands under the bedclothes and if it was wet, which they always were, they would be yanked out of their beds and given a cold bath."

She claimed that Sister Alphonso was responsible for this and added that sometimes they would be made to stand with the sheets, soaking with urine, over their heads by Sister Alphonso.

She claimed her little sisters would be crying, upset and screaming but if she intervened she would get a slap from Sister Alphonso on the side of her head with her knuckles.

"This happened on a daily basis unless Sister Alphonso was on retreat," she said.

Sister Alphonso, 59, denies cruelly treating Helen Cussiter on various occasions between her arrival at the home in 1967 and December 1971 when Mrs Cussiter was aged between 10 and 14.

It is alleged she repeatedly grabbed her by the hair, punched and kicked her on the head and body and hit her with Rosary beads, a hairbrush, a stick and shoes.

She is further accused of swinging her around by the hair, hitting her head against a wall and pushing her from a swing, knocking her to the ground.

The allegations also include forcing her to kiss the nun's feet, ridiculing her and making her kneel on the floor all night.

Sister Alphonso is said to have deprived her of sleep, medical and dental treatment, threatened to put her in prison and confined her in a hot drying cupboard.

The trial continues.

This story was first published in the Aberdeen Evening Express