UNITED KINGDOM
Guardian
Saturday 7 February 2015
by Joseph Flaig
The delayed launch of an inquiry into historic child abuse at a Church of England-run school for vulnerable girls has been criticised by one of the victims.
Teresa Cooper, 48, has campaigned for an investigation into abuse at Kendall House, a Church of England-run care home for “emotionally disturbed” teenagers that operated between 1920 and 1986 in Gravesend, Kent.
Ms Cooper, who now lives off Moreton Road in Ongar, was sent to Kendall House in 1981 when she was 14.
During the 32 months she was there, records show she was forcibly given drugs such as Valium and other tranquilisers more than 1,200 times.
She says she was sexually abused while under the effect of the drugs and has suffered ill health ever since, as have all three of her children.
In 2009, a BBC investigation found a number of other ex-residents had gone on to have children with birth defects after being forcibly given cocktails of drugs in the 1970s and 1980s.
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