Monday, May 14, 2012

HSE investigates Cork school abuse

The HSE investigation into alleged sexual and physical abuse at a former north Cork boarding school is still under way but the HSE cannot say when its conclusions will be made public. 

HSE executives say they cannot give a date for when the investigation — which relates to historical matters and not the current era — is likely to be finished due to the Garda investigation into alleged child sex abuse at Sacred Heart College, Carrignavar, in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.

The HSE began its inquiry last August into the decades-old abuse at the behest of Children’s Minister Frances Fitzgerald.

It was reported by the Irish Examiner this week that three men were arrested in connection with a major investigation into sex abuse at the school. 

The arrests follow complaints by nearly 20 ex-pupils. Gardaí received the first of the complaints last August, when they were approached by a former school boarder.

Gardaí described the three arrested men as "elderly".

Complaints were also made against a fourth man — a former priest with the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart — but he died suddenly at the end of last year.

The three men were released without charge and a file will be forwarded to the DPP.

The National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church has completed an audit of child protection practices within the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart late last year.

Whether the report will be made public depends on the missionaries. 

They too have indicated that they will not consider putting anything into the public domain until criminal investigations have concluded.