Mail (United Kingdom)
May 20, 2009
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1184828/Hundreds-Catholic-priests-implicated-child-abuse-report.html
A major investigation into allegations of child abuse in Irish state-run institutions is set to implicate 'hundreds' of Catholic priests today.
The country's Child Abuse Commission is publishing a report containing evidence from 2,500 victims of abuse following the Irish Republic's largest-ever investigation of religious orders.
Victims hope the massive report - five volumes totalling 2,500 pages - will finally reveal the full extent of the emotional, physical and sexual trauma inflicted on them by Roman Catholic nuns and priests.
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| Report: The Child Abuse Commission has examined more than 100 religious-run institutions in the Irish Republic |
Roughly 2,500 men and women who were abused in schools and institutions all over the country gave evidence.
More than 100 institutions run by religious orders, including industrial schools, institutions for children with disabilities and ordinary day schools, have been examined.
An interim report published in 2003 gave the testimonies of more than 700 men and women who recalled being beaten on every part of their body with objects including leather straps, sticks, farm implements, and even hurling sticks.
Others were sexually abused and some described being gang raped.
Maeve Lewis, of support group One in Four, said victims want a well-documented acknowledgement of the abuse.
'Over 35,000 children from the 1940s onwards were condemned to live under a regime of physical, sexual and emotional abuse and neglect,' she said.
While these institutions no longer exist, people who are now aged from 30 to 80 years live day by day with the impact their experiences had on their lives.'
Ms Lewis added: 'If it is a thorough acknowledgement and documents rigorously what people experienced, then it may bring some closure.'
A government compensation scheme has been set up for victims of institutionalised child abuse - at an expected cost of ?725million.
The names of alleged perpetrators will not be published - except for those already convicted - after several religious orders began legal action against the Commission.
But the inquiry is expected to produce specific findings against a number of institutions.
Among the many orders under investigation were the Sisters of Mercy and Christian Brothers, which ran the largest number of children's institutions.
Some of the allegations in the report cover events more than 60 years ago and many of the alleged perpetrators are dead or infirm.
The Commission was set up in 2000 by former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern after a TV expos?.
Its first presiding judge, Ms Justice Mary Laffoy, quit in 2003 amid accusations that the Republic's Department of Education - responsible for inspecting and regulating most of the institutions - was not co-operating with her requests for documents.
A second report, examining how the Catholic Church handled sex abuse complaints, will be published by the Commission in July.
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