UNITED KINGDOM
Hertfordshire Mercury
Arrests have been made as part of an investigation into historical cases of sexual abuse of children at a former Catholic orphanage.
Two men have been arrested and a further two people interviewed in connection with alleged child abuse at St Francis Boys’ Home in Shefford during the 1960s and 1970s.
A 72-year-old man from Bedford was arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting four children, while a 79-year-old man from Mundford, Norfolk, was arrested on suspicion of six sexual and 14 physical assaults on children at the home.
Both men have been bailed until April.
It is thought more than 100 boys could have been abused at High Street Home before it was closed in 1973.
Many of the victims have said Father John Ryan, who died in 2008, abused them while he ran the home in the 1960s.
Others claim Father Wilfred Johnson, who ran the home between 1945 and 1954, preyed on them. He died in 1994.
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