SCOTLAND
Scotsman
by CHRIS MARSHALL
Published on the 16 December 2014
IF, AS expected, the Scottish Government announces an inquiry into historical sex abuse today, it will mark the culmination of a decades-long fight for justice for survivors.
But while it is an undeniably significant step, the setting up of an inquiry is nothing more than that – a step in the right direction.
The difficulties faced by Home Secretary Theresa May in getting a similar inquiry off the ground to look at, among other things, the existence of a paedophile ring at Westminster have been well documented.
That inquiry has already seen the resignation of two chairs – Lady Butler-Sloss and Fiona Woolf – and the Scottish Government would do well to learn the lesson of properly listening to victims from the outset.
At the time of writing, it is unclear what powers a Scottish inquiry will have and what it will look at.
There is an expectation it will investigate allegations of historical abuse such as those made by former pupils at the Roman Catholic Fort Augustus School on the banks of Loch Ness and those who spent time in Nazareth House, a children’s home in Aberdeen.
Tied to scandals like these is the issue of record-keeping and whether those in positions of authority were complicit – unwittingly or otherwise – in the abuse.
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