GERMANY
BBC News
At least 547 young members of the Regensburger Domspatzen boys choir in Germany were subjected to physical and in some instances sexual abuse over a period of 60 years, a new report says.
Some 49 members of the Catholic Church are accused of carrying out the abuse between 1945 and the early 1990s, according to the report’s findings.
Victims said the experience was like “a prison, hell and a concentration camp”.
A 2016 report into the allegations said that 231 children had been abused.
The alleged physical abuse relates to children attending both the Regensburger Domspatzen’s pre-school and high school, according to the lawyer tasked with investigating the abuse, Ulrich Weber.
Representatives from the Regensburger Domspatzen boys choir have yet to officially respond to the report.
Presenting his findings on Tuesday, Mr Weber said the investigation had found 500 cases of physical abuse and 67 instances of sexual abuse over six decades.
Of the 49 church members who carried out the abuse under what was described as a “culture of silence”, nine were found to have been involved in sexual abuse, Mr Weber added.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.