SCOTLAND
Scotsman
MARTYN MCLAUGHLIN
Wednesday 06 July 2016
The victims’ trust is easily lost and after the resignation of the chairwoman, who will come forward to testify, asks Martyn McLaughlin
Trust is a fragile thing easily lost. The trust of the neglected and the persecuted is rarer still, a commodity lent in faith more often than certainty. For the victims of child abuse, the decision to step out from shadows that span the length of a lifetime is an act of fortitude. Trust is the most precious thing they have. Sometimes, it is all they have left.
These prisoners of childhood are well acquainted with betrayal. Robbed of innocence, they have seen their torment denied and trivialised. That they can find the strength to rely on the authorities that so grievously failed them is nothing short of a miracle.
They give their trust in the hope that it is a means to an end in the long journey towards justice, accountability and redress. Squander it and they are betrayed once more.
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