Northern Ireland: Amnesty and Abuse Victims Call for Clerical Abuse Inquiry

Amnesty International
November 20, 2012

http://www.amnesty.org.uk/news_details.asp?NewsID=20454

Clerical child sex abuse victims face exclusion from Institutional Abuse Inquiry

Amnesty International and victims of clerical child sex abuse have joined forces to call for the Northern Ireland Executive to set up an inquiry into clerical child sex abuse in the region.

The call comes as the Northern Ireland Assembly prepares to consider the Historic Institutional Abuse Inquiry Bill, which will establish an inquiry into child abuse carried out in institutions but, crucially, will exclude victims of clerical abuse outside residential settings.

Patrick Corrigan, Northern Ireland Programme Director of Amnesty International, said:

"Last year the National Board for Safeguarding Children published diocesan reviews which gave a glimpse into the horror of abuse suffered by children in parishes across Northern Ireland. But internal reviews are no substitute for a proper, independent investigation into clerical child sex abuse throughout Northern Ireland."

"The Northern Ireland Executive has an obligation to ensure a thorough investigation of child abuse within this jurisdiction. The victims of clerical abuse in Northern Ireland deserve nothing less than a full inquiry into the harm that was perpetrated against them as children.

"Survivors of clerical abuse in the Republic of Ireland have seen the State institute inquiries in the dioceses of Dublin, Ferns and Cloyne. In Northern Ireland there has been no such examination and the Institutional Abuse Inquiry will specifically exclude the victims of clerical abuse.

"Clerical abuse survivors in Northern Ireland have been in touch with Amnesty International and have told us they wish to see an independent public inquiry into clerical child abuse here. Amnesty supports the calls of victims for the Northern Ireland authorities to ensure that independent and thorough investigations are carried out into allegations of clerical child abuse past and present, as well as the response of both church and State authorities to such abuse."

Michael Connolly, who was a victim of child sex abuse at the hands of a priest in County Fermanagh from 1968 to 1974, says he and other victims of clerical abuse feel ignored by the Northern Ireland Executive. He and other victims have now established a campaign group, Clerical Abuse NI, to call for a clerical abuse inquiry in Northern Ireland.

"The inquiry into institutional child abuse is welcome, but this does nothing for me and the hundreds of other victims of clerical abuse who were molested in churches, church halls, private homes and other locations outside children's institutions.

"Our abuse was no less and our call for justice is no less deserving of being heard, yet clerical abuse victims in Northern Ireland are being deliberately excluded from any inquiry. If the Northern Ireland Executive is committed to excluding clerical abuse victims from this inquiry, then they must now make a public commitment to establishing a separate inquiry into clerical sex abuse of children in this jurisdiction.

"It is clear that not only did the church fail to protect children, but so did the State, which turned a blind eye to widespread and systemic child abuse over many decades. Only a proper public inquiry can establish the facts and ensure that this can never happen again."