NORTHERN IRELAND
News Letter
Alleged abuse victims are refusing to sign statements to a major inquiry into historical offences at care homes unless they secure legal funding, the Court of Appeal has heard.
Concerns were expressed at the apparent increase in the number of potential witnesses said to be holding off.
Sir Anthony Hart, chairman of the Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) Inquiry, is challenging a High Court verdict that he unfairly denied legal representation to a victim.
The woman at the centre of the case claims she was abused by a “very high-profile figure”.
She is due to give evidence at HIA hearings in Banbridge, Co Down, which are investigating child abuse in Northern Ireland residential institutions between 1922 and 1995.
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