NORTHERN IRELAND
UTV
A senior police officer described sexual abuse at a Co Down children’s home ran by a Catholic order of brothers as “rampant”, the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry has heard.
On Monday, the inquiry was hearing evidence on the Rubane House in Kircubbin, which was run by the De La Salle religious order from 1951 to 1985.
It was a voluntary children’s home for boys aged between 11 and 16 but from the 1970s it accepted children from the welfare authorities, predominantly from deprived parts of Belfast.
Rubane was the subject of a police investigation in the late 1990s.
Three De La Salle order brothers were charged but none were convicted after their trials did not go ahead because of legal issues.
The inquiry heard that in 1997, RUC Detective Chief Superintendent Eric Anderson, wrote a letter to the Director of Public Prosecutions about sexual abuse of children at the home.
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