Deutsche Welle
January 29, 2010
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5191479,00.html
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| Canisius College was a crime scene, its director says |
Former pupils at a Berlin Catholic school have said they were sexually abused by priests who were their teachers in the 1970s and 1980s, according to the school's director. Police have initiated an investigation.
Police have begun an investigation into allegations that teachers at an elite private school in Berlin sexually abused pupils during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Five former students, all male, at the Jesuit Canisius College had notified the institution's director, Klaus Mertes, of the abuse over the past two months, he said.
The two men, both Jesuit priests who no longer work at the school, had been identified by name by their accusers, who would have been aged 13-17 at the time, Mertes said.
The accusations prompted him to send an open letter to 500 alumni, encouraging them to write in about their own experiences at the time. Replies from ex-students continued to arrive, he said, with the number of people claiming to have been abused reaching 20 by Friday.
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It was unsurprising that the revelations came so late, Mertes said.
"Everyone who has dealt with sexual abuse cases knows very well that there's a lot of shame and pain involved on the part of the victims," Mertes told reporters. "And it often takes many decades until those affected are able to get their trauma under control and are willing to speak about it openly."
He said that the scandal could not have remained undetected at the time, had a number of people in responsible positions not looked the other way.
Most of the cases would likely be difficult to prosecute because German law limits the statute of limitations on sexual abuse to 10 years after the victim has turned 18, Mertes said.
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