Chronicle of ill-treatment rife up to last decade

CHILDREN were subjected to sickening abuse in care homes, foster care and other settings as recently as the last decade, the report by the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse (CICA) has revealed.

Chapters in one volume of the report contains witness reports of abuse in day and residential schools for children with intellectual and physical disabilities, and children who were blind or deaf. Hospitals and foster homes are also mentioned, with children suffering physical and sexual abuse, including rape.

The findings for special needs schools and residential services runs up to the last discharge of a witness in 1993, and found that nine special needs facilities were each the subject of between four and 12 reports, totalling 54 in all, while five facilities were each the subject of a single report.