NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph
BY JOANNE SWEENEY – 14 JANUARY 2014
Criminal prosecutions are likely as a result of the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry, which is now under way.
If a prosecution is imminent, the inquiry will go into closed session in order to avoid prejudicing a fair trial, the inquiry’s chair Sir Anthony Hart stressed yesterday.
In his opening comments, Sir Anthony said that more than 300 men and women will give “deeply upsetting” evidence about the abuse they suffered, which “in some cases they have never spoken to their closest family about”.
Yesterday saw the opening day of the Government investigation into claims of sexual and physical abuse, emotional abuse and neglect in 14 residential care homes in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 1995.
It will be the most wide-ranging investigation of allegations of institutional child abuse in the UK to date, at an estimated cost of £19m.
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