A 9 year investigation into Ireland's Roman Catholic-run institutions says priests and nuns terrorised thousands of children in workhouse-style schools for decades - and government inspectors failed to stop the chronic beatings, rapes and humiliation
High Court Justice Sean Ryan today unveiled the 2600-page final report of Ireland's Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse, which is based on testimony from thousands of former students as well as retired officials from more than 250 church-run institutions.
More than 30,000 children deemed to be petty thieves, truants or from dysfunctional families - a category that often included unmarried mothers - were sent to Ireland's austere network of industrial schools, reformatories, orphanages and hostels from the 1930s until the last church-run facilities shut in the 1990s, Associated Press has reported.
The report found that molestation and rape were "endemic" in boys' facilities, chiefly run by the Christian Brothers order.
Girls supervised by orders of nuns, chiefly the Sisters of Mercy, suffered much less sexual abuse but frequent assaults and humiliation designed to make them feel worthless.
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