NORTHERN IRELAND
The Journal
Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry – Report Chapters
Updated 4.25pm
A REPORT INTO institutional abuse at children’s homes in Northern Ireland has found that there was ‘widespread abuse’ at such facilities between 1922 and 1995.
The Historical Institutional Abuse inquiry had looked into allegations of abuse at 22 such children’s homes across Northern Ireland.
The largest number of complaints stemmed from four different Catholic-run institutions.
At those four Sisters of Nazareth homes nuns were found to have been physically and emotionally abusive to children in their care, chairman of the inquiry Sir Anthony Hart said at a press conference to launch the report today.
At those institutions, he added it was not unheard of for children to have outdoor disinfectant Jeyes Fluid put in their baths, while “the handling of menstruation and sex education, and other practices such as the confiscation of children’s belongings, represented poor childcare and amounted to systemic abuse”.
Sexual abuse had also been carried out by priests and lay people, Hart said.
Some institutions “sought to protect their reputations and individuals against whom allegations were made, by failing to take any action at all, failing to report matters to or deliberately misleading the appropriate authorities and moving those against whom allegations were made to other locations”.
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