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Polish Child Abusing Nun Charged In Poland
Warsaw, Poland 18 January 2010 - A Polish Roman Catholic Nun who beat a disabled child was charged in court for the physical abuse of a disabled person.
The Franciscan nun was recoded on a tourist’s mobile video phone as she hit a small girl in the face, yanked her hair and forcefully pulled her.
The tourist, Piotr Banaszek, was living next-door to the home where the abuse took place and made a several minute long recording.
„One day I saw a nun walking behind a child. Suddenly the child stops and takes off her shoes. The nun starts shrieking. Then she takes the shoes and starts hitting the child over the head with them. Pulls her hair, hits about the face,” Mr Banaszek said.
The nun Mr Banaszek recorded is Sister Jadwiga. She was a guardian in a social care home which looks after 50 children with brain damage, Down’s Syndrome, autism and physical disability.
She may hear more allegations but the director of a regional Family Help Centre Zdzisław Wasilewski said “our controls which have taken place up to this time haven’t shown any offenses. That’s why I think the care is appropriate”.
Sr. Jadwiga’s fellow nuns explained that the material was taken out of context, that violence doesn’t occur in their institution, and that the sister’s action was of self defense.
“She hits her father, she hits everyone, and in some way one needs to defend one’s self, and that’s all this situation is,” said Sister Anna, the institutions director, on national television.
“I can’t see that she is clearly pulling her hair, she is only holding her head.”
“Knowing this child … she could have been defending herself. She’s lost more than one pair of glasses and had her veil removed on more than one occasion. An exceptionally violent child.”
The nun also claimed that when on vacation the child calls the accused nun “mama, mama, mama”, and that the child is aggressive non-stop and provocative.
The parents who still have full parental rights were informed of the event some days later. They were told the girl was trying to publically undress herself and she was being restrained.
“She never said she hit,” the girl’s mother said.
She went on to say that moving the child to another home might be traumatic for the girl, but that she feels the nun, if she did beat her child, is unfit to care for her.
As many as 50 children with brain damage, Down’s Syndrome, autism and physical disability live in the public social care centre which is run by the Franciscan Sisters Assembly.
Sister Jadwiga no longer works at the post where the incident took place; she was moved to a home near Warsaw.
The nun may be sentenced to up to five years imprisonment for the physical assault of a disabled person.
By Victoria Ziarkowski
Freelance Writer
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