NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph
Historical Abuse Inquiry: Alleged victim refused copy of her child abuse statement
13 OCTOBER 2014
A woman who says she was molested at a children’s home has lost a legal battle to obtain a copy of her private statement to the Historical Abuse Inquiry.
Court of Appeal judges upheld a decision that she has no right to be provided with a recording of her account to a panel.
Emphasising the need for confidentiality, Lord Justice Gillen ruled there was no basis for declaring the refused disclosure unreasonable or unfair.
He said: “The grim truth is that if it were to become commonplace for such recordings to be provided, with all the attendant risks of such material innocently or otherwise getting into the public domain, we can readily see the deleterious effect this might have on the process as a whole.”
The woman, who cannot be identified, claims to have been subjected to physical and psychological abuse at Nazareth House in Belfast during years she spent there in the 1970s.
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