PSNI investigating more than 50 reports of abuse in mother and baby institutions
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) has confirmed that 52 allegations of “potential criminal activity” in mother and baby institutions have been received.
It comes after an investigation into allegations of physical and sexual abuse involving mother and baby institutions, work houses and Magdalene Laundries was launched in October last year.
Three of the reports received to date are from mothers who were brought to institutions in Northern Ireland from the Republic of Ireland.
Seven reports have also been received of babies who were born in Northern Ireland, then moved across the border and sometimes further afield to be adopted.
Working in partnership with An Garda Síochána, the PSNI is now appealing to anyone currently residing in the Republic of Ireland, who may have suffered in these Northern Irish institutions, or witnessed anything they thought was suspicious at the time, to come forward and report.
Detectives working on the investigation are looking into reports of potential abuse that occurred in the Northern Ireland institutions between 1922 and 1990.
The PSNI said it was pleased that people were having the confidence after all these years to come forward, however, it believes there are still people out there who are “suffering in silence as a result of experiencing or witnessing potential criminality”.
Detective Superintendent Gary Reid, who is the operational lead for the investigation said the force will continue to do all it can to reach as many people as possible.
“We know there are people currently residing in the Republic of Ireland that haven’t yet come forward to us,” said Det Supt Reid.
“We want to reassure them that this investigation is still very much live and ongoing and that we want to hear from them too.”
He is urging anyone who was a victim of abuse in any of these Northern Irish institutions, knows somebody who was, or witnessed potential criminal activity take place, to get in touch.
The PSNI said all those who come forward will be spoken to by a specialist detective from its Historic Child Abuse Unit and will be offered the opportunity to have their account recorded so that a criminal investigation can take place.
Institutions such as mother and baby homes and the Magdalene Laundries were tasked by the State to deal with ‘fallen’ women, such as those who had become pregnant out of wedlock. Their children were either boarded out to foster parents, institutionalised, or adopted by families of the same faith, some as far away as America, and – as survivors, advocates and researchers have long maintained – often under “questionable circumstances”, says Clara Fischer, a researcher and lecturer at Queen’s University Belfast.
Research published last year by Queen’s University Belfast and Ulster University found that around 10,500 women were admitted to mother and baby institutions and around 3,000 women were admitted to Magdalene Laundries between 1922 and 1990. The research examined eight mother and baby homes, a number of former workhouses and four Magdalene Laundries.
The last mother and baby institution closed in 1990; the last Magdalene Laundry in 1984.
An adoptee from the Marian Vale Mother and Baby Institution said: “My birth mother was a resident at Marian Vale in Newry, Northern Ireland, in 1968, while she was pregnant with me. My adoption by an American couple was arranged there; they had family in the Republic of Ireland.
“In the weeks following my birth, three contradictory birth certificates were issued for me presumably to facilitate my transport from Northern Ireland to the Republic of Ireland and ultimately to the America.
“I feel that I was transported like a commodity – a practice I find reprehensible. I urge anyone else with such evidence to come forward and report to the PSNI.”
The force said a dedicated reporting system is in place to make it easier for people who suffered to come forward.