How Could You? Hall of Shame-UK-Sister Isobel O’Brien

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Merseyside, UK, Sister Isobel O’Brien “who beat and sexually abused little girls and encouraged older children to do the same have been laid bare in a new book.

The alleged abuse by Sister Isobel O’Brien began to come to light thanks to the bravery of one of her victims, Marie Hargreaves.

O’Brien was identified as part of a Merseyside Police investigation into abuse at Greenfield House convent in Billinge, St Helens, after the now 65-year-old came forward decades later.

Marie says from the age of six she was savagely beaten, mentally abused and subjected to horrific sexual assaults with a coat-hanger while living at the convent between 1959 and 1963.

Marie made tentative efforts to come forward in 1998, speaking to Greater Manchester Police as part of a major investigation into children’s homes dubbed Operation Cleopatra.

However she did not feel able to talk about the sexual element of the abuse until after the death of her husband, Jack Hargreaves, in 2010.

After bravely waiving her right to anonymity to speak to the ECHO last year, which prompted more victims to come forward, Marie decided to write a book about her ordeal, The Convent, which is available now.

She said: “I cannot in all truth say that this ordeal has not, at times, dominated and defined me.

“I carried this heavy weight around for 60 years and it almost dragged me under. Now, by speaking out, I feel that my burden is lifting at last.

“The shame is no longer mine.”

Marie, six, and her seven-year-old brother, Fred, were placed in Greenfield House when their parents, who had eight other children, were unable to look after them due to crippling poverty and her mum’s undiagnosed but severe mental illness.

The mum of three, grandmother of nine and great-grandmother of two was the youngest child in the convent and claims Sister O’Brien ordered older girls to administer brutal beatings.

She says some of those girls, who have never been identified, also sexually abused her in the dorm rooms at night and made her think it was “normal.”

A police investigation in December 2015 revealed Sister O’Brien as the suspect, but also made the crushing discovery that she had died before the allegations could be tested in court.

Other allegations have been made against Sister O’Brien and Marie says she was told by police that a criminal prosecution would have been pursued if she was alive.

Marie, then surnamed Kibblewhite, says she was primarily cared for by Sister O’Brien, who she claims quickly demonstrated a penchant for cruelty and violence.

She said: “The first thing they did was cut all my hair off. I remember screaming. They put me in a little room, like a cell, with another girl who was older than me.

“The older girls would get me to get into bed with them.

“[Sister O’Brien] would never use my name, she only ever called me Kibbie. I started to think that was my name. It was all to demoralise me.

“She would get the older girls, who were aged about 11 to 13, to gang up regularly beating me up.

“I think sometimes it was for sticking up for my older brother. I always stuck up for him even thought I was little. I would question things as well which they didn’t like. I would say why?”

Marie, who worked in a bakery and now lives in Hathershaw, Oldham said the violence and cruelty escalated and she remembers sitting in her room “crying all night.”

“I remember something happened and [Sister O’Brien] got them to get me into a room. She was waiting at the end of the bed and they allowed the sexual abuse to happen.”

Marie says she was sexually assaulted with the coat hanger by Sister O’Brien on at least two occasions.

In around 1963, Greenfield House closed down and traumatised Marie was able to return home to her parents, who had no idea of the devastating abuse she had suffered.

Many of the children, and staff, in Greenfield House were relocated to Newstead Children’s Home in Wavertree.

After Marie’s heartbreaking story was published in the ECHO, Bernadette Bocock, 59, and her sister, Linda Wilson, 63, added their voices to the calls for justice.

The sisters were placed into Newstead Children’s Home, on Old Mill Lane, Wavertree, and into the care of Sister O’Brien who moved there following the closure of Greenfield House in the early 1960s.

Notes from Marie’s solicitor, AO Advocates, describe the effects of the abuse, stating: “The client experiences flashbacks and nightmares. The client suffers from very low self esteem. The client is also very overprotective of her children, which has caused problems and tensions within the family.”

Marie told the ECHO: “I had to grow up and try to have a normal life. I kept saying to myself; I’m normal. But nothing that happened to me was normal.

“I didn’t want to be close to anybody. It puts a barrier between you and your own children, and it’s with you always. Abuse is very, very cruel.”

Marie says she now feels she could forgive Sister O’Brien, and even wishes to place flowers on her grave.

In a statement to the ECHO, the Archdiocese of Birmingham said it had publicly apologised to all victims of child sexual abuse involving the church during the ongoing Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA).

It said discussions were progressing between the Sisters of St Paul and Marie’s legal team.”

Evil nun led child sex abuse gang in hell-hole convent that left victim ‘crying all night’

[MSN 5/24/2020 by Jonathan Humphries]

REFORM Puzzle Piece