Documentary record Bound by Fear
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Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Catholic Lasswade and Kilmarnock, Scotland, UK (tried at Edinburgh Sheriff Court) · 2026

Scotland: three former Sisters of Nazareth nuns convicted of cruel and unnatural treatment of children in their care

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

nuns of the Sisters of Nazareth holding custodial and religious authority over children resident at two of the order's children's homes

Organization

Sisters of Nazareth (Poor Sisters of Nazareth)

Spiritual nexus

Children committed to the Sisters of Nazareth's care were held under the total combined custodial and religious authority of the order; the convent setting and the nuns' religious office were what made the regime of punishment unrefusable and undisclosable to outside authority for over forty years.

  • Institutional obedience or isolation

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 2026-01-15 · conviction and sentence

    Edinburgh Sheriff Court, Scotland. Following a five-week trial, Carol Buirds (known in religion as Sister Carmel Rose), Eileen McElhinney (Sister Mary Eileen) and Dorothy Kane were found guilty of subjecting multiple child victims to cruel and unnatural treatment between 1972 and 1981 at Sisters of Nazareth children's homes in Lasswade and Kilmarnock. Buirds was convicted on 13 charges including assault to severe injury, including rubbing urine-soaked bedding on children, forcing food and soap into their mouths, and locking children in a cupboard and an unlit, waterless cellar; she was jailed for 15 months. McElhinney was convicted on 5 charges and given a 12-month Probation Order with 240 hours' unpaid work and a home curfew (4pm-midnight) for nine months. Kane was convicted on 2 charges of cruel and unnatural treatment and given 150 hours' unpaid work within nine months.

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • total custodial and religious authority over children with no outside contact
  • physical punishment presented as institutional discipline within a convent-run home

Primary record

Sources

official prosecuting authority verdict report 'Nuns convicted of non-recent child abuse at Nazareth House children's home', Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS), 15 January 2026.

Official Scottish prosecuting authority press release confirming the Edinburgh Sheriff Court convictions, charges and sentences for Buirds, McElhinney and Kane following the five-week trial.

national newspaper verdict report 'Former nun jailed for abuse of children at homes in Scotland run by Catholic order, the Sisters of Nazareth', The Irish Post.

Press coverage corroborating the sentences and identifying the two homes (Lasswade and Kilmarnock) and the abuse period (1972-1981).

Related record

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