SISTER Frances Dominica has described her heartache after sexual abuse allegations forced her to sever ties with Helen and Douglas House, the Oxford hospice that she founded.

The nun – given an OBE for services to healthcare after founding Helen House, the world’s first children’s hospice – revealed she had resigned from her position as a trustee of the charity at the end of December.

Her resignation came after the hospice asked Sister Frances “not to return”, on recommendation of a confidential risk assessment.

This was despite police halting their investigation into allegations made that she sexually abused two women between 1980 and 2000.

Sister Frances “wholly” denies the claims, which are understood to be in no way connected with Helen and Douglas House.

Our top stories

She told the Oxford Mail the unproven accusations had left her “in limbo” and she feared she will never get the chance to clear her name. She said: “Short of going to trial, it is almost impossible to do that.

“What keeps me going is the support and friendship of so many people, the hope for the future and the fact there are many other things I can do.

“I will always have tremendous love for Helen and Douglas House and for the families who have come, and huge respect for the staff and the people who support the work.

“And I recognise and accept the trustees were in a very difficult position.”

She likened the hospice to her “baby”, which she was having to let go of.

She said: “Some parents find it very difficult to stand back and let their children become adults and let them go their own way.

“That is something I am having to learn at the moment.

“What the future holds, I don’t know. I would like to think there would be a future where I was involved again with the hospice, but at the moment I can’t see how that would be.”

The nun, formerly Mother Superior of the All Saints Sisters of the Poor, also called for sex crime suspects to be given anonymity until conviction, pointing to a string of investigations into high-profile public figures that have been dropped by police.

She said her own case, and those of war hero Lord Bramall, broadcaster Paul Gambaccini and the DJ Neil Fox, were examples of how the accused had been unfairly named “in the public arena”.

“It is very important to listen to and encourage genuine victims to come forward. We need to listen and to act,” she said.

“But there are also people who are actually out to make mischief.

“No one knows the history of the person making the allegations, they will never be named, whereas the people who they claim abused them are named in the public arena.

“In our culture now, instead of being innocent until proven guilty, we are actually seen as guilty until proven innocent.

“So many people are living with that hanging over their heads and I suspect the public feels it is getting completely out of hand.

“There have been people who have taken their own lives because they have been in that situation.

“I was lucky. I have been inundated with letters, cards, emails, telephone calls, a lot of them from families who have been friends for many years because their children came to Helen House or Douglas House; a lot of people who are just incredulous and cannot believe [the allegations against me are] true.

“It was tremendously heartening, quite moving, to have that support.

“But I would like to have had anonymity. I would still have had to take various steps, I would have had to tell my fellow trustees and they would have had to make decisions.

“But I feel quite strongly that those who are accused should not be named in public until conviction.”

Sister Frances was placed under investigation for a year by Thames Valley Police, between July 2013 and July 2014.

She was arrested and questioned in November 2013 and a file was passed to the Crown Prosecution Service in April, but the CPS decided no further action should be taken.

Despite that decision, the nun had to go through a separate investigation for an independent risk assessment for nearly a year.

She said she understood the decision of the hospice’s trustees, but expressed frustration at the phrase “insufficient evidence” used by the police and the CPS when they dropped their investigations.

“It is synonymous with ‘no case to answer’, which I think the public would understand much better”, she said.

“I was immensely relieved when I learned that it would not go to trial, but not being able to go back to the hospice was very hard. The families and the care team didn’t understand.

“Originally when I was told there were allegations, I almost laughed because it was so ridiculous.

“I suppose I thought naively ‘this will all go away soon, because it is so ridiculous’.

“It could happen to anybody and it takes a long time for each stage.

“It was a year before the police and the CPS completed their investigation. That is a long time.

“I understand what the trustees are trying to do, which is to protect the reputation of the organisation.

“But it is hard, of course it is hard.”

Looking to the future, Sister Frances said she would now concentrate on her continued roles as patron of REACT [Rapid effective assistance for children with potentially terminal illness], as a Deputy Lieutenant of Oxfordshire and a public speaker on paediatric palliative care on the world stage.

She also wants to raise awareness about false accusations made against public figures.

Sister Frances added: “I have never been good at looking at tomorrow, because I’ve always been preoccupied with looking at today.

“And I suppose I have always been delighted when something presents itself to me, so I am open to whatever might come my way and to discern whether this is something I can be useful in.

“But my life is about paediatric palliative care really, and that is the exciting thing about the international role I can now take.

“Japan has been a wonderful opportunity. I was at the opening of the first ever Japanese children’s hospice, in Osaka.

“I really love my links with Japanese paediatricians and families.

“That is the sort of thing that really gives me such pleasure.

“The grief of the death of your child is indescribable, so any little thing that gives comfort or support or strength, I think, is very, very important.

“That continues whether I’m in Helen and Douglas House or not.”