A PENSIONER charged with cruelty towards children at an Inverclyde care facility more than half-a-century ago is set to go on trial at the end of the month.

Euphemia Ramsay, 76, faces allegations involving vulnerable youngsters throughout her employment at Quarriers Village between September 1969 and April 1973.

She is said to have ordered that food be forced into a young girl's mouth to the extent that she choked and struggled to breathe during an alleged series of cruel and unnatural treatment episodes.

Prosecutors say that Ramsay, who lives on the Isle of Man, also attacked a boy who was aged between five and six by repeatedly striking, punching and kicking him on the head and body to injury.

The accused is said to have repeatedly forced the alleged boy victim to bathe in cold water and repeatedly forced him to sleep in a porch area and also on a concrete floor.

She is further charged with repeatedly spitting on the boy's face and forcing him, when he had wet his bed, to stand naked in front of other residents and staff.

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Ramsay is accused of repeatedly withholding meals and privileges from him as punishment for bed wetting and forcing him to watch other residents eat.

Prosecutors claim she instructed a member of staff, whose identity is unknown, to seize him and repeatedly force food she knew he disliked into his mouth.

The victim is said to have choked during this alleged treatment and spat the food out which, it is claimed, was again forced into his mouth.

Ramsay is charged with repeatedly shouting, swearing and uttering derogatory and abusive remarks towards the boy, and with repeatedly destroying his possessions and instructing him to do the same.

She is accused of repeatedly making threats of violence towards the alleged female victim and repeatedly placing cold uneaten food before her at meal times as punishment for her failing to eat it previously.

The Crown says Ramsay seized the girl, forced her onto a table and instructed someone else to force feed the girl.

Ramsay is further accused of pulling the child from a chair and striking her on the body with a shoe to her injury, and of repeatedly uttering derogatory and offensive remarks in front of other residents.

A further pre-trial hearing will be held at Greenock Sheriff Court on July 24 before the trial scheduled for July 31.