Sir Anthony Hart, Retired Judge Who Chaired a Major Inquiry into Historical Child Abuse in Northern Irish Institutions – Obituary

The Telegraph
July 18, 2019

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2019/07/18/sir-anthony-hart-retired-judge-chaired-major-inquiry-historical/

Sir Anthony Hart: a gentle Christian, he was described by a representative of a survivors' group as 'like a father figure' CREDIT: PAUL FAITH/PA

Sir Anthony Hart, who has died aged 73, was a retired judge of the Northern Irish High Court who in 2012 was appointed to chair the biggest child abuse inquiry ever held in Britain; he went on to show that abuse in children’s homes and other institutions on the island of Ireland was not a problem confined to the Irish Republic.

The Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry (HIAI) was set up in May 2012 by the Northern Irish Assembly to investigate allegations of abuse in 22 institutions between 1922 and 1995.

Alleged victims had campaigned for several years for an independent inquiry, and the Assembly’s decision followed similar work in the Republic, where four state-funded investigations from 2004...