One of the nuns linked to allegations of abuse at the Lourdes Home orphanage in Gozo, Carmelita Borg, has died. 

Her death, at the age of 78, was announced on Tuesday evening by the Santwarju Madonna ta’ Pompej Facebook page.

The Mother Superior for the Dominican nuns was responsible for the Lourdes Home orphanage in Għajnsielem at the time the alleged abuse took place several decades ago. 

Earlier this month, survivors testified in court how they were subject to sexual abuse and regular beatings in the Church-run orphanage they lived in during the late 1970s and early 1980s.

The court heard the testimony of two women, Carmen Muscat and Rosanne Saliba, who were raised decades ago at the Lourdes Home in Għajnsielem which is run by the Dominican Sisters. 

The women recounted how the nuns would beat them for no reason, locked them up alone for days and forced them to live in fear. 

'She went to the other side and I am still suffering'

Saliba told Times of Malta that she will continue fighting for justice for herself and the other victims. 

"I hope to God that she wrote down that the abuse in our time did exist and that she did not take the necessary action for it," she said.

"Secondly, I hope Mother Superior wrote down why she kept so much information from me when she was involved in what was going on."

In court, Saliba had recounted how she had only learnt that her biological mother had died by chance.

She said that when she asked the Mother Superior what happened to her mother, the nun said that her mother had been dead for two years.  

"She went to the other side, and I am here suffering, is that fair? Not at all."

Saliba said she will continue to fight for justice, for herself and the other victims. 

Muscat meanwhile told Times of Malta that she was informed on Wednesday morning that the nun died.

“All I can say is now she is in God’s Hands,” she said.

Muscat had told the court that as she grew older, another of the nuns, "Sister Josephine" took her to see a priest in a private part of the building.

There, she was forced to touch herself, and she recalled how a priest had exposed himself to her during confession.

Abuse at the Għajnsielem home is alleged to have stretched for decades.

The Church first acknowledged it in 1999, when it set up a commission which concluded allegations were unfounded.

'Inadmissible behaviour'

Claims then came to public attention in 2006, when survivors ranging in age from their 20s to 40s described horrific abuse on the TV show Bondi+.

In 2008, a second Church commission to investigate abuse claims found evidence of “inadmissible behaviour involving minors” at the home.

The Gozo Bishop at the time, Mario Grech, had issued a statement asking survivors for forgiveness and ordered that the commission’s recommendations be implemented.

In 2011, police launched a probe into the Lourdes Home and two of its nuns, Sr Josephine Anne Sultana and vicar general Sr Dorothy Mizzi, in connection with an abuse claim filed by a boy dating back five years prior