04:32 PM EDT on Friday, July 30, 2004

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- A 50-year-old woman has filed the latest lawsuit alleging sexual abuse against a defunct orphanage run by Roman Catholic nuns.

Charlotte Marie Bailey’s suit, filed today in Jefferson Circuit Court, is the 20th complaint alleging abuse at the now-closed Saint Thomas-Saint Vincent Orphanage at Anchorage.

The suits claim the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth committed abuse and tolerated abuse by others from the 1950s through the 1970s. The Sisters of Charity operated the orphanage, which was owned by the Archdiocese of Louisville.

The suit says Bailey alleges she was forcibly sexually molested, abused, battered and assaulted in the 1950s and 1960s by a nun at the orphanage known as “Sister Camilla.” In a separate suit against the Sisters of Charity, plaintiffs Deborah Ferguson and Monica Aubrey have also alleged abuse by the same nun.

Bailey alleges she was beaten with a leather strap.

A spokeswoman for the Sisters has declined to comment on the specifics of the lawsuits.

(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)