NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News
The Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry has been told a religious order accepts that a notorious paedophile priest abused children in their care.
The inquiry’s barrister, Christine Smith QC, said witnesses alleged they were abused by Fr Brendan Smyth in two care homes in south and east Belfast.
The inquiry is examining abuse claims at Narareth House and Nazareth Lodge.
The homes were run by the Sisters of Nazareth, who have repeated an earlier apology to all abused in their care.
‘Sadistic and bullies’
The HIA inquiry was set up in 2013 to investigate child abuse in residential institutions in Northern Ireland over a 73-year period, up to 1995.
A total of 13 Northern Ireland institutions are being investigated.
The latest module, focusing on the two Belfast homes, is the single biggest module of the inquiry, in terms of the number of witnesses who have come forward to given evidence about their time in the care of the nuns.
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