NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph
13 JUNE 2013
Hundreds of victims of clerical and Magdalene laundry abuse in Northern Ireland have been left out of a new public inquiry designed to probe past wrongdoing, campaigners said.
Some women had their babies taken off them, were forced to scrub floors or locked in their rooms for hours in institutions for women like single mothers. Other men and women who claim they suffered years of sex abuse at the hands of predatory priests cannot tell their stories or seek redress under existing arrangements established by the Stormont Executive.
The Historical Abuse Inquiry chaired by a retired senior judge is investigating cases involving children in residential institutions in Northern Ireland since 1922.
Amnesty International Northern Ireland director Patrick Corrigan led a delegation to meet with Stormont ministers to press for its expansion.
He said: “Many victims are being left behind and what we delivered to the ministers today was a very clear message to say that there should be no second-class abuse victims in Northern Ireland. All deserve justice, all deserve truth, all deserve the state to respond to them. The state let them down then, it should not let them down again.”
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