Victims 'will suffer psychologically' if silenced by commission

HUGE psychological damage would be caused to child abuse victims if the Laffoy Commission was unable to listen to and believe their stories, a lawyer representing some of the victims declared yesterday.

They would see the big institutions winning and the little man thrown to the wolves, he said.

David McGrath SC said the commission was specifically established to investigate abuses that occurred to the people he represented. To be effectively rendered toothless would show that their abusers were being protected and their needs and wishes were being ignored.