Chapter 13 — Special needs schools and residential services

Physical abuse

Witnesses reported that while attending special needs services they were physically abused and assaulted by various means including being hit with leather straps, canes, spade and broom handles, various types of sticks and brushes, kitchen implements, wooden coat hangers and rulers. They also reported having their heads held under water, being put into cold baths, having their hair cut and pulled, being forcibly fed, and being locked in outhouses, sheds and isolated rooms. Witnesses with sensory impairments described the particular fear and trauma associated with being physically abused when they could not see or hear abusers approaching them.

Other forms of physical abuse and assault reported by witnesses included being punched and kicked, pinched, slapped across the face and ears, held by the throat, lifted by the hair and ears, and having their left hands or both hands tied behind their back to prevent use. There was a whole load of them... (religious and lay staff)... who’d slap me across the face or with the strap on my legs .... I didn’t feel I was a trouble maker but I was active, they just picked on me ... they just kept slapping me the whole time and they all said I was a trouble maker, they gave me a bad name.

Witnesses reported being severely physically punished for certain behaviours, in response to particular occurrences and frequently for no reason that they could understand. Among the events reported to have been so punished were: running away, bed-wetting, talking to co-residents, not completing chores, disclosing abuse, being forced by violence to carry out sexual acts, taking food, making mistakes in the classrooms or workshops, using sign language, not using disability aids properly, losing or damaging disability aids, wear and tear on clothing, walking out of line, having soiled sheets or underwear, and being out of bed. Several witnesses reported that using sign language and writing with their left hand was forbidden. The first time I was hit, a crowd of us used to queue to get our hair combed. The Brother in charge ...(named religious) ... said to me “you are going without getting your hair combed”. I wasn’t, he beat me then.... He put me over his knees and hit me with his hands, I was totally puzzled, I couldn’t figure out why I was hit. I hadn’t done anything wrong, I hadn’t been hit at home even though I had done things wrong.... That was the first of many times being hit ... It was Br ...X.... He invented excuses for hitting fellas, such as he invented this thing that ...younger co-residents... could not talk to ...older residents.... He’d beat you for a lot of things with the leather, your trousers would be down, it ... (the beating)... could be over the stool or over his bed. One of the things was I got beaten for putting polish on my socks, you’d get beaten if you didn’t have Rosary beads with you, they used have Rosary every night. If a fella had a hole in his jumper, if it turned into a hole before I realised it, I would be beaten. • Br ...X... would bring the bed-wetters into his room and flog them. He’d make them have a cold bath whether it was winter or summer and you could hear the screams, the screams, he was very violent. He was a big strong fit man, I was petrified of him, it came back to me in dreams, the dreams of it returned. • There is the whole issue of... (mannerisms)..., people have sort of mannerisms maybe, shaking backwards and forwards, you’d be beaten for that. • We were punished for signing. ... It was very, very difficult to control. ... It was our language, it was the way we communicated. It was natural for us to use gestures, we were deaf.

The random nature of some beatings was described by witnesses. One said he was severely beaten after the residence he occupied was accidentally flooded. He was not there when the accident happened, but was blamed nevertheless. Another witness described how a particular staff member would: ‘beat you wherever he could get you, I got used to being beaten up, I didn’t care’. Others commented that they did not know why they were being beaten as nobody explained anything to them. They accepted physical abuse as part of life in the institution.

Witnesses said they were physically abused in many locations but most often in the classrooms, dormitories, stairs and corridors, staff bedrooms, and in the external playing areas. Five (5) witnesses reported being held down across furniture by older residents to be beaten on their bared bottoms by religious and lay staff.

Ten (10) witnesses reported receiving injuries as a result of the physical abuse they experienced, including five accounts of receiving wounds that bled and four accounts of extensive bruising. There were separate accounts of injury to one witness’s arm that the witness believed resulted in permanent disability and injuries to another witness’s head and ears, which were believed to be the cause of subsequent hearing loss. Another witness stated that she required sutures to her arm following a severe beating with a broom handle. Both religious and lay staff were reported to have perpetrated abuse that resulted in these injuries and one female witness reported injuries that were the result of being assaulted by a group of older co-residents. She ... (Sr X)... beat me,... (on)... me arms, me legs. She used to put me across the table and beat me, it could be the strap, the ruler, it could be anything, she used pinch me so hard. I used be black and blue my legs would be black when she’d be finished with me.

Evidence was heard regarding 80 staff and co-residents who physically abused witnesses in special need facilities.

Witnesses identified 57 staff, 24 male and 33 female, by name as physically abusive. A further 16 staff, 13 male and three female, were identified by their position as abusive but were not named by witnesses. Thirty seven (37) of those identified by name were religious staff and 20 were lay care staff, teachers and ancillary workers. Eight (8) named staff who were identified as physically abusive were also reported as being sexually abusive. It is possible that there is some overlap between staff identified by name as abusive and those who were not named by witnesses.

There were seven accounts of physical abuse perpetrated by co-residents, including three co-residents who were named by witnesses. The other four accounts were of groups of co-residents referred to as ‘gangs’ who were physically abusive and who taunted and threatened witnesses and other residents. Witness information regarding precise numbers of co-resident abusers was incomplete. As numbers are uncertain, each group is included in the following table, as one abuser and, therefore, could be considered an under-representation of the actual number of co-residents reported as abusers. It is also possible that there is some overlap between co-residents identified by name as abusive and those who were not named by witnesses.

Table 8 shows details regarding the reported position and numbers of named and unnamed individuals described as physically abusive:

Position of reported physical abusers	Males	Females
Religious
- Authority figure	6	5
- Care staff	18	5
- Teacher	7	7
Lay
- Care staff	0	11
- Teacher	2	4
- Ancillary worker	4	4
Co-resident	6	1
Total	43	37

Eleven (11) of the religious staff reported as physically abusive were described as either being in charge of the institution or the Principal of the school. The 34 religious and lay staff, listed in Table 8 as care staff, were described by witnesses as having contact with residents in the context of their personal or everyday care. Lay staff who were occupied as night watchmen and laundry workers, and others with designated tasks, are identified above as ancillary workers. Religious and lay staff listed in Table 8 as teachers were either referred to as teachers by witnesses and/or were described as abusing witnesses in the classroom. There was one person very cruel, he was a teacher, he used to tell us he would go to hell when he died because he did not beat us enough. He had been in another school and he was dumped into ... (witness’s special needs school).... He was a very unsuitable man, he would use a full cane with the ridges on it, he would beat you anywhere. I remember him beating me around the neck, it was quite strong, he was lashing out generally. Usually it was for inability to learn Irish, I was not bad at Irish, he beat me, I don’t know why, I didn’t know what was happening to me.

Sexual abuse

This section summarises the witness evidence given of sexual abuse, ranging from contact sexual assault including rape to non-contact abuse, such as voyeurism and inappropriate sexual talk. Witnesses gave as much or as little detail as they wished when describing their experiences of being sexually abused. While some witnesses provided detailed and disturbing accounts of sexual abuse, less detailed accounts were sufficient to clarify the acute or chronic nature of both contact and non-contact sexual abuse.

The use of the child by a person for sexual arousal or sexual gratification of that person or another person.6 Thirty six (36) of the 58 witnesses who reported abuse in schools and residential services for children with special needs reported being sexually abused. The 36 reports were from 29 male and seven female witnesses in relation to 10 separate special needs facilities. Twenty seven (27) reports referred to abuse in facilities for children with intellectual disabilities and eight reports referred to facilities for those with sensory impairments. One report referred to abuse in a residential facility for physically disabled children. Eight (8) facilities were the subject of between two and 10 reports, totalling 34 reports. Two (2) others were each the subject of single reports.

The forms of sexual abuse reported by the 36 witnesses included voyeurism, inappropriate fondling, mutual masturbation, oral/genital contact, penetration with objects, kissing, vaginal and anal rape. Eleven (11) witnesses, nine of whom were male, reported being raped. With one exception witnesses reported being raped many times, in some instances on a regular basis for periods up to five years.

Witnesses reported that sexual abuse occurred in private and was most often perpetrated by specific individuals over a period of time. Witnesses from three facilities described being taken from their beds at night by male religious staff and being sexually abused in the staff members’ bedrooms. They reported being raped, fondled and molested, and some described being unable to walk following such episodes of abuse. Other witnesses reported being sexually abused by staff members while engaged in routine activity or while entrusted to their care. There was another Brother, he brought me into his room I didn’t like it, he did things, he hurt me. I was crying ... it was at night time, he made me do things.... He did things to me ... he hurt me. Sometimes he took me into his room, he slept in a room on his own off the dormitory. ... I didn’t like that going on. He was nice to me after it ...(anal rape).... • I was sexually abused by ...named lay ancillary worker... at 13 or 14 years of age, a few times. He agreed to bring me home to where I came from for a visit. I knew him so well. He started to touch me in my private parts and kissed me. He stopped in a lane on the way home ...distressed.... It’s all bad.