A FORMER children’s home boss who beat and abused kids over 30 years wept today as she avoided jail.
Anne Whitty, 73, walked free despite being nailed for “cruel and unnatural” attacks on 12 youngsters as young as four.
Sheriff Tom McCartney hailed the bravery of survivors forced to relive their ordeals at trial.
And he handed Whitty the maximum 300 hours of community service.
He slammed her for being in “denial” about her reign of terror at Quarriers, in Bridge of Weir, Renfrewshire, between 1974 and 2003.
Paisley Sheriff Court earlier heard the twisted ex-housemother routinely battered boys and girls and left some in so much fear that they ran away or wet the bed.
She also force-fed victims, locked others in a shed or made them stand for hours in dark rooms as punishment for not polishing boots or floors to her liking.
The gran denied the offences but was found guilty last month.
Passing sentence, Sheriff McCartney told her: “You were convicted by a jury of crimes of cruel and unnatural treatment of children.
“The victims were vulnerable children placed under your care and protection.
“The evidence mainly came from survivors of your abuse.
“They displayed strength and bravery in coming to court to give evidence in what would have been a difficult experience having to revisit painful memories.
“It is a concern you remain unable to acknowledge the extent of the ill treatment.”
Whitty, of nearby Erskine, had spent time in Quarriers as a child before returning to take a job as an adult.
Her lawyer Paul Mullen admitted there had been a “failure on her part to safeguard children”.
Survivors, child abuse campaigners and her family packed the court.
Some shouted “disgusting” while supporters yelled “common sense” when she was told she had dodged prison.