UN investigating treatment of Magdalene Laundry survivor

The United Nations has begun an investigation into the State's treatment of a Magdalene Laundry survivor.

Elizabeth Coppin, 70, originally from Kerry but now living in the UK, has brought a case to the UN Committee Against Torture, claiming she's been denied justice for over 20 years.

Ms Coppin was born in a mother-and-baby home in 1949, before being sent to an industrial school and laundries in Cork and Waterford.

Elizabeth says the conditions were awful:

"I was dragged into the padded cell. There was no bed no there, no mattress, bread and water to drink.

"While I was in there I was at my lowest and I knew that I had to do something if I got out of there because I would die in there like a lot of the women who were dying around me, working daily," she added.