A NUN accused of battering teenage girls resigned as headmistress of the school where the alleged abuse took place and left the country, a court has heard. Anne Kenny, who is known as Mother Rosaria, stepped down from her post at Dalbeth Approved School, in Bishopton, Renfrewshire, in March 1971.

She then left Scotland and headed for London, where she enrolled in a course to reaffirm her faith.

Kenny, 79,and co-accused Agnes Reville, who is known as Mother Martin, are charged with assaulting six girls at the school, which was run by The Good Shepherd group, in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

They deny hitting the girls with carpet beaters and riding crops, dragging them down corridors and locking them in rooms against their will.

During their trial at Paisley Sheriff Court this week, Kenny - known by her chosen name of Mother Rosaria - said she resigned because of changes to the law.

She said: "I resigned because I foresaw wholesale changes to the administrative system were going to be difficult and I didn't want to be involved in that." The pensioner said that approved schools were being "phased out" and the management of the schools was passing from the government-run Home Office to be under the stewardship of local authorities.

Fiscal depute Douglas Hamilton asked the nun why she resigned as opposed to being transferred to another school. She said: "I would have had to make a big administrative adjustment to what was going on in Scotland. Initially there was talk of me going from Dalbeth to Newcastle, where we had a senior girls' school, but that didn't come off - I wasn't even interviewed. I asked if I may resign." The nun said she took the decision to leave the approved school system altogether and headed for London.

She enrolled in a spiritual renewal course at a centre in the City.

Mother Rosaria, who had admitted in a police interview there was a punishment room, said girls were only taking to the "cooling off" room if they "went quietly." The nun, who has worked as an archivist for The Good Shepherd organisation for the last 20 years, said that girls often ran away from the school.

She told the jury that pupils absconded "fairly regularly".

Mother Rosaria also denied assaulting girls with riding crops and carpet beaters, saying she didn't even have those implements at the school.

Although she denied the girls were assaulted by her and her co-accused, Mother Rosaria did concede the libelled assaults may have taken place.

She said: "I think they may have gone through these experiences at some point in their lives but they did not have these experiences at Dalbeth." At the close of the Crown case Hamilton, prosecuting, told the court that two of the nine assault charges the women faced were being dropped.

Kenny was cleared of assaulting one girl by slapping her and forcing her to drinking Largactil, an anti-psychotic drug.

Reville, 77, was found not guilty of battering another girl and forcing her to drink the psychotic medication.

Kenny, of Manchester, is still facing three charges. She denies assaulting one teen with a carpet beater, hitting one girl with a carpet beater and a riding crop, and smacking another youngster on the soles of her feet.

Reville, of Newcastle, denies four charges of assault. The trial continues.