PEOPLE who suffered abuse at Catholic children's homes have been awarded official compensation, it was reported last night.
Eighteen residents of the former Nazareth House homes in Aberdeen, Glasgow and Kilmarnock have received awards of up to GBP7500, according to BBC Scotland.
It is understood The Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) compensated the former residents after a hearing last month.
They claimed they were abused, beaten or humiliated as children by some of the nuns who ran the homes.
Glasgow lawyer Cameron Fyfe told BBC Scotland that the compensation ranged from GBP1000 to GBP7500.
He said: "It's a great boost to these clients because they feel they have been vindicated.
"I don't think they are interested in compensation but for a government authority, CICA, to say to them, 'Yes we accept you were abused, yes, we accept you were assaulted and you should be compensated', that's a great boost to them."
Mr Fyfe will represent 24 others connected with Nazareth House homes at appeals hearings in Glasgow in October.
Nazareth House is part of an order, the Congregation of the Poor Sisters of Nazareth, formed in London in 1851 after nuns from France were invited to Britain on the advice of St Vincent de Paul Society members. The order had the specific remit of caring for children.
The first Nazareth House opened there in 1857 and the order spread throughout the UK and Ireland to Australia, NewZealand, South Africa and the US.
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