Young boy sexually abused in orphanage bathroom, inquiry hears
Last updated 30th Nov 2017
A former resident of a Catholic-run orphanage has told an inquiry how he was sexually abused in a bathroom.
The witness, who cannot be named, was under 10 years old when the incident was said to have happened at Smyllum Park orphanage in Lanark, South Lanarkshire.
Speaking at the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry on Thursday, he told how he went to the bathroom where a former resident of the home was.
The witness, now in his late 60s, said: `He took his penis out and told me to play with it.
`We heard someone coming in, two boys laughing. He quickly put it away and told me 'you tell anyone about this and I'll get you'.'
The alleged attacker was said to have lived at the home until he was 16 before being given a job there because he had no relations outside.
After the incident, which was said to have taken place in the late 1950s, the witness told how he was too scared to go to the bathroom by himself.
In December 1959 he returned home to his parents before going back to the institution in the spring of 1960.
Having described the care home as `like a concentration camp', the witness broke down in tears when recalling when his parents told him he would have to return to the home.