NORTHERN IRELAND
Amnesty International
Amnesty International has called on the Police Service of Northern Ireland to launch an investigation into the potential cover-up of criminal acts of child abuse detailed in the BBC programme This Week, broadcast in Northern Ireland on May 1 2012.
The programme uncovered fresh information about serious acts of sexual abuse of children, living in Northern Ireland and the republic of Ireland, by Fr Brendan Smyth, and suggested that a number of people within the Church hierarchy in Ireland may have failed to report those crimes to the State authorities in either jurisdiction. It is alleged that, as a result, the abuse of these and other children continued for a further period of years.
Amnesty International has called for the PSNI to investigate whether Church officials and others failed to report the alleged criminal offences against children in Northern Ireland to the relevant authorities in Northern Ireland.
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