AN ALLEGED victim of child cruelty at an Inverclyde residential home half-a-century ago wept as she told a jury how she choked as she was force-fed by a 'frightening' carer called 'Auntie Effie'.

Accused pensioner Euphemia Ramsay, 76, is facing multiple indictment charges relating to claimed abuse that she is is said to have meted out to youngsters at Quarrier's Village in the 1960s and 70s.

The first alleged victim - now a retired police officer - repeatedly sobbed in the witness box of Greenock Sheriff Court as she told how incidents at a cottage in the village have stuck with her throughout her life.

She said: "They are memories I wish I didn’t have.

"Auntie Effie was meant to care for and look after us and she just completely abused that trust.

“It would’ve been easier for me not to be here today.”

Ramsay, who now lives on the Isle of Man, is accused of assaulting and humiliating youngsters who were in her care during a term as a sole 'house parent' at the Quarrier's cottage allocated to her.

She is charged with cruel and unnatural treatment towards a male child, then aged between five and six, and a girl, aged eight-10-years-old, at Quarrier's Village from 1969 to 1973.

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The female witness described two specific occasions when Ramsay allegedly mistreated her at the cottage and said day-to-day care there 'was not what I had become accustomed to'.

She said: "It was more chaotic and there didn't seem to be the routine I had become used to. It seemed a bit unstable to me, I found it quite daunting.

"When I look back on it now it was based on how auntie Effie was and how her moods were and that reflected on my feelings of anxiousness in the house.

"I was quite a timid and shy person anyway as a child and that just made me retreat more into myself.

"I didn't want to come to her attention because she frightened me."

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The woman told the court that she had always 'had an issue with eating meat' and often could not finish her lunch and dinner meals.

Referring to one occasion in particular, she said: "I had been given stew and potatoes and it immediately made my stomach turn. There was still some left on my plate and auntie Effie told me 'You're not leaving until you've eaten it all'.

"I answered back and it took a lot for me to answer back.

"For whatever reason that angered auntie Effie and I found myself on top of the dining room table being held down by someone else whilst auntie Effie was stuffing food into my mouth and telling me to swallow.

"I could feel myself choking, I was struggling to get off the table. She was telling me 'It's potatoes, don't be so ridiculous'.

"I was then told to go up the stairs.

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"It was shocking to me. That was the first time anyone had ever laid hands on me."

In a separate alleged incident, the woman claimed Ramsay 'whacked' her with a heavy wooden sandal after she failed to finish another meal, leaving her crying in pain and banished to her room until the following morning.

The witness added: "I was certainly frightened of her and very wary around her."

Prosecutors claim Ramsay also engaged in a similar pattern of behaviour towards a boy at Quarrier's years earlier, with accusations including that she repeatedly forced him to bathe in cold water, repeatedly struck, punched and kicked him on the head and body to his injury, spat on his face and forced him to remove his nightwear and stand naked in front of other residents and staff when he had urinated in his bed.

The trial before Sheriff James Varney continues.