Child abuse probe to examine role of courts

The role the courts played in placing children in institutions will be examined in a major probe, it was revealed today.

The chairperson of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, Justice Sean Ryan, said they are seeking legal changes to enable them to emphasise the importance of institutional issues and systems failures.

“We propose to seek an amendment to remove any doubt about the relevance of this area to the inquiry into child abuse,” Mr Justice Ryan said in a statement.

“The importance of the issue to some victims is hard to exaggerate.

“It seems to us that it would be unsatisfactory to ignore this part of the history that we have to explore.

“In this connection, it has seemed to us important not to ignore the methods by which children came to be placed in institutions.”

The inquiry spans a time period of 60 years from the 1930s onwards to find out how and why child abuse took place in institutions, mainly run by religious orders, within the state.

The chair said institutions had come forward to offer new information about abuse it became aware of though no official complaint had been lodged.

John Kelly, the founder of Survivors of Child Abuse, said they welcomed the investigation of the courts.

“We feel vindicated in the stance we had taken not to fully cooperate as one obstacle was the courts,” Mr Kelly said. “In many cases children didn’t have any legal representation that allowed their constitutional rights to be violated.

“We feel we can cooperate in a more positive manner and we will be advising members we should follow suit.

“It might open up a can of worms for the state eventually as at the moment the religious orders are getting the blame for everything.

“It is the system that will go on trial.”

Mr Justice Ryan put his proposals, over the courts, witnesses and naming perpetrators, aimed at pushing the inquiry forward to a public meeting of victims and interested organisations on May 7.

The committee had previously decided not to look at the role of the courts as it believed it was not within its terms of reference.

Witnesses will now only be called to give evidence of the abuse suffered by them to the extent the inquiry needs, as the Investigation Committee received over 1,700 complaints.

The group also said that it would not be naming individual perpetrators of abuse unless they were convicted in the courts.

Mr Kelly, who represents around 1,400 people, said: “We are obviously extremely disappointed with the naming and shaming thing but we have to say to our people they have to be realistic and it is not possible to hear every victim.”

The amendments to the 2000 Act, outlining the commission, are also to ensure the Investigative Committee is not in error if it decides it does not want to name any individuals.

The group will be approaching each institution involved in the investigation separately.

Justice Ryan said they would not wait for the amendments to resume the inquiry: “People have had enough reports and reviews and discussions about the inquiry and its procedures and what they want now is for us to get on with our work and to inquire into child abuse in institutions as we are required to do under the legislation.”

The group was established by the Government in 1999, as one of a range of steps to address the effects of child abuse on its victims.

It was suspended last September after its original chair Justice Mary Laffoy had resigned.

Last month the confidential committee, which started its hearings in September 2000, had heard 866 witnesses to date and there were 189 remaining to be heard.

The committee hopes to offer an appointment to each remaining applicant before the end of the year.