UNITED KINGDOM
Bedfordshire on Sunday
TODAY James McCann, 80, was found to have responsible for 42 charges of physical and sexual assaults against young boys at St Fancis Boys’ Home in Shefford.
Former editor of BoS, Steve Lowe, has followed the story closely since 1997.
He worked to expose the wrongdoings at the boys’ home and bore the brunt of the backlash from doing so.
Now he shares his view on the outcome.
It was 1997 and I was asked to meet someone who had a complaint about a former Catholic Boys Home.
The newsroom was not that excited and I was told not to take too long.
That was the first time I met Damian Chittock. He told me about Shefford Boys Home, run by the Catholic Church where the residents were mainly abandoned or orphaned boys between the ages of six and seven.
Damian said he had suffered abuse, both physical and sexual, and that such abuse was rife in the home.
Damian named several priests, who committed this abuse over several years, who were aided and abetted by the nuns and some helpers who came into the home.
The chief perpetrators were Father John Ryan, who ran the home in the 1960s, until 1973 when it was closed down, and his brother Gerry. But they were not the only ones.
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