‘Children inflicted most sex abuse on other children’
He claimed post-1999 media reports of religious found guilty of sex abuse in institutions put the focus on sex abuse by members of religious congregations. This had “confused” many former inmates as to what they should say to the authorities.
“I do not believe that the degree of sex abuse that took place within these institutions was perpetrated by the religious,” said Mr Hayes, who described himself as secretary of the Alliance victim support group. “What I am saying is, and I have knowledge of, that these acts were perpetrated more by those of us that were in the institutions. The question of religious sex abuse was certainly news to my ears, and I know to most people who were in the institution with me it was news to their ears also.” He described carrying out research in England and Ireland in the mid-1990s for a book he considered writing on his former institution, Glin School, run by the Christian Brothers.
