Foster Mom Convicted of Torture

May 31, 2013 permalink

Scottish foster-mom-from-hell Ruth Johnston has been convicted of torturing her wards. Her child-care practices included:

• malnutrition
• forcing a child to lick urine off a carpet
• kicking a child to the ground
• hitting a child with a slipper
• pinching a child until drawing blood
• dragging a child by the hair
• force-feeding
• cold showers
• forcing a child to sit outdoors for hours in the cold
• making a child repeatedly run up and down the street in pajamas
• rubbing soiled sheets in a child's face
• confiscating treats given to a child
• cramming foster kids up to five in a room
• hitting a child on the head

All together now: Best interest of the child!

expand

collapse

By Annie Brown, 30 May 2013 07:28, Daily Record

Sadistic foster mother convicted of horrific catalogue of physical & mental torture against young children in her care

RUTH JOHNSTON painted herself as a loving mother but for years she terrorised her foster children, subjected them to physical pain, humiliation and even made one lick urine from a carpet.

Adele McGuire, Rebecca Forrester, Thomas Timlin and Kevin Timlin.

A “DICKENSIAN” foster mother made a child lick urine from a carpet and left her so starved she ate from bins.

Ruth Johnston, 61, treated her own kids like royalty while beating and terrorising foster children as young as two.

Vulnerable youngsters were knocked to the ground, hit with a slipper, pinched until they bled, dragged by the hair, force-fed, put into freezing showers and forced to sit outside in the freezing garden for hours on end as a punishment.

One little girl was made to run up and down the street in her nightdress. Another had her soiled sheets rubbed in her face.

If anyone gave the children sweets, self-styled Christian Johnston would confiscate them and give them to her own kids.

She lived in comfort with her family upstairs at her home in Paisley’s Dunchurch Road while the foster kids were crammed in up to five to a room downstairs.

Social workers kept placing children with Johnston despite repeated complaints, and she got away with her cruelty for years.

But four young victims – Rebecca Forrester, 19, Adele McGuire, 25, and 22-year-old twins Kevin and Thomas Timlin – banded together and bravely told what she had done to them.

And yesterday, they held hands and wept with relief as she was convicted of physically and mentally torturing them between 1991 and 2001.

Johnston will be sentenced at a later date. It’s feared she had other victims.

Her husband Gordon, 63, a former church elder, was cleared on not proven verdicts of three charges of assaulting children.

Johnston denied all wrongdoing and painted herself as a loving mother who nurtured the children entrusted to her.

But prosecutor Stephen Ferguson told her trial she had subjected her victims to “a pattern of real and sustained abuse”.

And as he found her guilty, Paisley sheriff James Spy said the conditions the kids had described in her home “would match a Dickensian description of life for deprived Victorian children”.

He praised the kids’ courage.

Johnston showed no emotion. Kevin said: “She has shown no remorse. Her reaction was one of arrogance and indifference.”

Rebecca said: “I feel relief she has been found guilty. I feel I can breathe again.

“But now we have to ask why it was ever allowed to happen – and ensure it does not happen again. The system betrayed us.”

Rebecca was placed with Johnston when she was two and kept there until she was eight. She endured constant cruelty over those years, sometimes being hit with such force that she fell to the ground.

She said: “I was hit several times a day. She’d hit me with her hand, a slipper or a newspaper. I was told it was because I was bad. I got to feel it was normal.”

The foster kids were not allowed upstairs to use the toilet. It was reserved for the Johnstons. And like most of the children, Rebecca wet the bed.

After one such incident, her urine-soaked clothes and sheets were rubbed in her face and she was forced to her knees to lick the soiled carpet.

She was then dragged upstairs by the hair and made to stand in a cold shower.

Another time, Rebecca was put in the garden as a punishment and not allowed back inside until bedtime.

She recalled: “I sat outside with nothing, feeling completely lost and hurt. I got so hungry that I went through the bins and I ate a stale baguette.”

Rebecca would also sometimes have to find food in the bins at school. And when Johnston did give her something, she would fly into a rage and force-feed her if she refused to eat.

Rebecca said: “My throat would hurt as she shoved it down. I realised early on that to cry would make her worse.”

Johnston bought two types of groceries – one for her own family and one for the foster children. The Johnstons got the best, while the foster kids were given cheap, basic brands.

Even when they were out shopping together, Johnston would torment Rebecca. She said: “She would dig her nails into my skin or nip really, really hard and we weren’t allowed to complain. It would bleed or sting for a day or two.

“I had to be careful not to cry. If I cried, she would do it harder.”

When Rebecca was five, a wasp stung her on the tongue at school.

She had to go to hospital and her real mum was summoned to go with her, but Johnston was furious that they had spent time together.

Rebecca said: “She walloped me on the head and made me sit on the stairs.

“I wasn’t allowed to have any feelings for my own mum. She used to ask if I loved my mum and I had to say no or she would hit me.”

When it was time to wash Rebecca, Johnston would do it in the sink, using washing-up liquid.

She carried the mental scars of what Johnston did to her for years, and suffered from depression.

But she now works as a telephonist, and is a loving, dedicated mother to her own baby.

She and the other victims are making successes of their lives.

Adele is a shop manager, Kevin is in his final year of a law degree at Edinburgh University and Thomas is also at uni – studying social work.

The boys’ achievements are no thanks to Johnston, who began abusing them when they were three and continued until they left her when they were seven.

They were regularly beaten and locked out of the house.

Kevin recalls how sweets would be taken from them and put out of reach – so the Johnston kids could eat them.

In more than three years, Kevin was given two baths. But he was forced into a cold shower every three days.

And when it was time to be taken to church, the boys would be scrubbed up and made presentable. Johnston had an image to protect.

Kevin and Thomas and their birth family complained to Renfrewshire social services about Johnston, but they were not believed.

“The Johnstons were considered upstanding members of society,” Kevin said.

“We came from a troubled background but we were innocent, vulnerable children. We deserved to be loved and cared for properly.

“We don’t want any child to go through this again. We felt we had a duty to stand up and fight for accountability, not just for us but all the other children who were sent to that house.”

Thomas added: “There were social work investigations but nothing was done.

“In future I would say, ‘Ask the children if there is something wrong.’ It’s easy for abusers to put on a show.”

Adele was with Johnston between the ages of three and five, and was hit regularly.

She also recalls having to sleep on a bare mattress after soiling the bed, and being forced to run up and down the street outside the house in a twisted punishment.

Adele, who has struggled to recover from the abuse, said: “When I heard that verdict, I felt euphoria.

“We all stood together against her and we won. Finally, after all these years, we have been heard.”

Duncan Dunlop of kids’ charity Who Cares? Scotland, said children in foster care could find themselves in a “closed shop” environment.

It can be hard for them to speak out, or find advocates to speak for them.

Duncan said: “Children in all types of care need to be both seen and heard.”

Source: Daily Record (Scotland)

Addendum: No jail for Ruth.

expand

collapse

Cruel foster mum guilty of ‘Dickensian’ abuse escapes jail term

A FOSTER mother responsible for the ‘Dickensian’ abuse of children in her care avoided jail yesterday.

By: David Scott, Published: Wed, July 3, 2013

Johnston-escaped-a-jail-sentence-and-walked-free-from-court Johnston escaped a jail sentence and walked free from court

Ruth Johnston treated her own youngsters like royalty while terrorising foster children as young as two.

The 61-year-old beat the children and forced them to take cold showers.

She washed them in a sink, using scourers and washing-up liquid, and would say they were “bad” and deny them food.

One little girl was made to run up and down the street in her nightdress.

Another child was left so starved that she foraged in rubbbish bins.

Social workers kept placing children with Johnston despite repeated complaints, and she got away with her cruelty for years.

But four victims – Rebecca Forrester, 19, Adele McGuire, 25, and twins Kevin and Thomas Timlin, 22 – banded together to reveal what Johnston had done to them – and she was convicted of seven charges, including assault and wilful ill-treatment, at Paisley Sheriff Court in May.

Sheriff James Spy said the evidence “would match a Dickensian description of life for deprived Victorian children”.

But yesterday when she returned to the dock for sentence, still protesting her innocence, the sheriff said his ability to punish her was “severely limited” by the length of time that had elapsed since the offences.

He also noted that, because the case was brought at summary level, the maximum jail term was 12 months.

Rather than jailing Johnston, he placed her on probation for two and a half years and ordered her to carry out 240 hours of unpaid work.

One of her victims burst into tears as Johnstone left the dock and walked free from court.

Johnston – who fostered children for 13 years – had claimed she had “a warm home run by churchgoers”.

Her husband Gordon, 63, a former church elder, faced three charges of assault, but these were found not proven.

Johnston denied all wrongdoing and painted herself as a loving mother who nurtured the children entrusted to her. But prosecutor Stephen Ferguson told her trial she had subjected her victims to “a pattern of real and sustained abuse”.

Louise Arrol, defending, yesterday told the court: “She maintains her position of denial, though she accepts that she requires to be sentenced today for the charges your Lordship convicted her of.”

Speaking following May’s trial Kevin Timlin said: “She has shown no remorse. Her reaction was one of arrogance and indifference.”

Miss Forrester added: “We have to ask why it was ever allowed to happen – and ensure it does not happen again. The system betrayed us.”

Source: Daily Express (UK)