Local Victims of Abuse Submit Evidence to Inquiry

Ulster Herald
January 21, 2014

http://ulsterherald.com/2014/01/21/local-victims-of-abuse-submit-evidence-to-inquiry/

Abuse survivor Margaret McGuckin holds a picture of her as a child.

UPWARDS on 100 people from the Omagh and Strabane areas are said to have submitted evidence to the most wide-ranging investigation of allegations of institutional child abuse in the UK to date.

This will be the second week of hearings as part of the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry, which is estimated to cost £19million.

Margaret McGuckin from Survivors NI (SAIVA), which is assisting survivors and victims of abuse to tell their story, said that the group has been contacted by dozens of victims from West Tyrone.

Ms McGuckin is campaigning for victims after suffering abuse at a Sisters of Nazareth orphanage in Belfast from the age of three.

Speaking to the TyroneHerald, Ms McGuckin said she hopes the inquiry will provide a “thorough and fair” examination of the abuse which had taken place across 14 residential care homes in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 1995.

She is also urging local abuse victims who have not yet come forward to contact the group.

“Our organisation has been contacted by upwards of 100 people from the West Tyrone area.

“Many more have not come forward, but I would urge them to contact us because there is nothing to fear,” Ms McGuckin said.

“Victims now have protection and, while we have given a guarded welcome to the apologies by two religious orders in the Catholic Church, this must be supported by their full co-operation with the inquiry,” she said.

“At last the victims of this abuse have been given a voice and I have seen grown men and women cry tears of relief that their stories are finally being listened to.

“The pain which they have carried with them for a lifetime never goes away. There will be more heartache ahead for them, but it will be worth it.”

The inquiry is the biggest child abuse probe ever held on these islands. So far over 400 people have contacted the inquiry to say that they were abused.

In the region of 300 witnesses are set to testify during the public hearings, with 13 residential institutions currently under investigation by the inquiry team.

It is expected that the investigation – which is taking place in Banbridge – will last for at least 18 months.

A final report will then be made to the Stormont Executive in January 2016.

Sir Anthony Harte, the chairman of the inquiry, said that they would be striving to complete their tasks in a “thorough, rigorous, impartial and sensitive” manner

The report will determine if there were systemic failures in the care of children and make recommendations on matters such as the possible need for a formal apology to victims and future compensation.

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