2,143 entries for Witness Testimony

Witnesses also described being raped and/or inappropriately fondled in their own beds at night by religious and lay staff. Other locations of sexual abuse reported by witnesses included toilets, bathrooms, dormitories, classrooms, yards, play areas and off-site locations. Br ...X... used do dirty things to me at night when I’d get my period. He used to wake me at night and took off all my clothes and pull the things up on me. He raped me when I’d get my period, he did it 5 or 6 times and he’d touch my chest.... I told ...named lay care staff... and she put me to bed late ... (to avoid contact with Br X).... • From the time I was 7 until I was 14, maybe 3 nights a week maybe 4, 2 or 3 Brothers sexually abused me. They took turns, not every day, doing the night duty, walking around ... they had different shifts, they would enjoy themselves. They knew which boy was in the bed. ... Sometimes they would follow me behind the toilets in the day time and do it again, they would pretend to dry ...(me)... with the towel and they would do that, mess with you, kissing, touching....

Witnesses reported being forced to endure and comply with sexual abuse through threats of violence, isolation from their peers, deprivation of family visits and being threatened that they would be reported to authority figures. Witnesses also reported being subjected to various bribes and inducements, including money, cigarettes, sweets and alcohol: Another Brother ...(X)... (teacher)... he used to bring a white bag with scones in it from the Brothers’ kitchen to our rooms and he would give the scones to the children who would let him feel their legs and touch them. ... He would examine their essays, check their spellings. ... He would check us all out closely and while he was doing that he would be sitting quite close to us and feeling our legs, at that stage I was quite innocent. • One ...(Br X)... didn’t teach in class, he would look after pupils, he was a big man. ... On the day before I left I asked him for ...a book... he told me to go upstairs. He suggested he would go to the room where he kept his books, but he took me to his bedroom and he closed the door and I got a fright. ... He pushed me over onto his bed, he was wearing his habit. I was trying to resist, I could see his face, he was really red in the face. ... I couldn’t feel his private parts because he had his habit on and that was ok. ... (witness described molestation)... .Afterwards he gave me a bar of chocolate and told me to keep quiet about it, I was very shocked.

One witness named a man by whom he was sexually abused. He was a member of the public who had access to the grounds of the intellectual disability service, and who befriended the witness in the course of his activities there: He ...(X)... asked me to meet him one night outside. ... I got out the window and I met him down the way, he came out in his car and he made sure there was nobody looking and he asked me to get in. He was doing his usual thing on the way across ... (touching witness).... I thought he was bringing me home but we ended up in a Bed and Breakfast. ... By that stage I knew what he was doing was wrong. He took my clothes off ... he just did what he wanted to do to me ... (witness described anal penetration).... He said if I ever told anybody he’d get me, he’d know where I was. ... He left me home to my parents’ place, they were waiting outside the door, he walked up and said “I found your son, he was walking the streets, I picked him up”. ... He never told them anything about what he’d done. ... (Witness never saw abuser again)....

In addition to staff members and co-residents who were reported as sexual abusers there were five witness reports of sexual abuse being perpetrated by the following male adults who were external to the institution: a visiting GP, a chaplain, a father in a ‘holiday’ family, a male member of the public, and a volunteer worker who took residents out to the cinema. There was a man ... (member of the public)... he used to watch me, he was always a bit of a loner. ... He came across me one day when I was alone and he invited me into ... (the)... shed and he started touching me. It happened on 3 occasions. He wasn’t part of the staff but he used to use the facilities. To begin with he used to just touch me, then he removed my clothes. ... There was a dirty mattress and he pushed me down and he got on top of me, he was pushing himself up and down on top of me, he had his clothes off. I didn’t really understand what he was doing. • When I was taken out... (by holiday family)... I was abused, I was sexually abused, it was a man... (father in holiday family).... I was sent out nearly every weekend and holidays and it went on for years and years of my life...distressed...I can’t get over it, it just gets to me. I was 7 years of age.

Fourteen (14) witnesses reported inadequate education as their main form of neglect. They gave examples of educational disadvantage caused by being made to work instead of attending school. Witnesses reported that in schools for children with sensory impairments classwork was primarily focussed on using disability aids, such as hearing aids, speech and vocalisation aids and touch text for those with sight impairments. Most of the 14 witnesses reported that their education was impeded by fear of physical abuse in the classroom. The inspectors would come in, but they ...(teachers)... generally knew when they were coming. ... Everything was lovely, the stick would be put away, out of sight.

Witnesses with sensory, physical and intellectual disabilities commented on the accompanying communication difficulties they experienced. Deaf witnesses described the distress they endured when forced to communicate through speech instead of sign language and the considerable time and effort that was devoted to teaching them Oralism while forbidding any other form of communication: They were treating me like a stupid ...child... because I didn’t learn properly. I was very intelligent when I was small, I was very quick at picking up things through sign but I couldn’t learn through oralism, I was very, very low, my confidence was gone, my self-esteem was gone. I was very, very disappointed with myself, because I couldn’t learn through oralism, and then they would hit you if you didn’t understand and so we pretended to understand to avoid being hit all the time.

In addition to the reports of inadequate classroom education five witnesses reported that the education and training offered in the workshops attached to the schools did not prepare them for independent living following their discharge. The lack of preparation for independent living was reported as abusive. They commented on the traumatic impact of being discharged from the shelter of residential settings without any aftercare or follow up: (Discharge preparation)...didn’t give us a great start, the best of us got through, if you had a strong character and if you came from a strong family home, that would support you but if you didn’t have that going for you, you kind of fell into a survival method.

Emotional abuse described by witnesses included deprivation of family contact, social isolation and humiliation, lack of affection, personal ridicule, constant criticism, bullying, fear and threats of harm. I can only think of years of abuse and torture and being a punch bag and crying.... Lonely and crying in bed most of the time and being scared and not being able to tell anyone. • To begin with, I was more or less bullied ... (by)... older lads ... often times they used do it for money. ... We used to go out and do work experience ... anytime I’d get paid for it they’d want the money off you ... I tried to say I didn’t have it, or something. ... They used to call me all sorts of names. ... I thought at first I’d avoid them, but every time I went to go off somewhere they’d follow me. ... They went on to kick the back of my heels, pushing me down the stairs, stick my head underwater and stuff.

The most consistently reported form of emotional abuse by the witnesses with special needs was of being denigrated, humiliated and disparaged about their appearance, mannerisms and intelligence. They reported being called names and made the subject of derogatory comments by certain staff, some of whom encouraged co-residents to jeer at their behaviour. Witnesses said their weakness and distress was subject to particular derision and they were further humiliated when they cried or demonstrated distress. They treated me like a dog, I couldn’t read and I couldn’t speak, the ...religious staff... called me names, terrible, they beat me up with a leather.

A reported consequence of the loss of family contact in the process of being institutionalised was loss of identity. Twelve (12) of the 58 witnesses reporting abuse in special needs schools had little or no information about their birth or family, and had no contact with family members after their admission. Three (3) witnesses had no information at all about their family of origin, and all they knew about themselves was their name. I suppose some of it was my fault really, I was looking for my mother, there was no answers... I heard girls talking about their Mammies and I had nobody to come up to see me, nobody. I knew nothing... (about family)... so I took these fits of tempers, I was a handful.

Witnesses with sensory impairments described their extreme fear and distress when they were locked in rooms as punishment. One witness described the terror experienced when locked in an outhouse with animals, another of being left overnight in a washroom without any bedding as punishment for bed-wetting or other alleged misdemeanours. I was locked in the washroom overnight. ......( named religious staff member)... would walk out and close the door, you’d have your ...night clothes... on and you could stand at your basin and do what you liked but you had to stay there, no blankets, mattress, sleep on the bare floor. We used to get together in a corner and try to keep each other warm, it was scary, you’d hope that nothing would happen, you could also be there on your own. ... You could be there for more than a few nights in a row, freezing cold.

Four (4) witnesses gave accounts of their lives being threatened by groups of co-residents who bullied them. One witness reported to a staff member that he was being sexually abused and bullied by a group of co-residents, which resulted in further abuse from his co-residents. He reported that they held him over a stairwell and threatened to drop him the next time he told anyone that he was being abused. He was further threatened that his younger sibling would be punished in the same way. Another witness reported being threatened that he would be pushed from a height if he disclosed physical abuse and bullying by co-residents. They ... (older co-residents)... brought me up to the top of ... in the grounds and held my hands behind my back and pushed me over to look down off it, I thought they were going to push me down off it, lucky enough someone was passing by and they saw what was happening and they stopped, when the fellas saw who was there they ran away.

Several witnesses described the distress they experienced as a result of hearing and seeing co-residents being beaten and humiliated. The sound of other children being beaten was reported to be particularly distressing in addition to the pervasive fear generated in an environment where, as the following witnesses described, there was a constant threat of being hurt: You see a lot of the trouble for me was listening to fellas getting beaten, listening to fellas being flogged. I remember a fella who used to shake himself and shake his hands and things like that, he was quite bad at it. This Br ...(X)... got an idea into his head that he would stop this fella from doing these things. Every time he saw him doing it he’d slap him, he’d stop him by hitting him. Eventually he stopped...shaking... during the day, he’d wag in the bed at night and the bed was a noisy springy bed. This Brother would beat him in bed at night. ... That chap became a bed-wetter after that happened. The bed-wetters, I’d hear the screams, it would give me a dry retch even though I had nothing in my stomach, it used to affect me very badly. • He... (lay teacher)... beat them ...(co-residents)... around the room like cattle, they would be crashing into desks and he would say “would you mind my lovely furniture”. It was very bad listening to it. I couldn’t learn, you couldn’t learn in the atmosphere of violence ... if you didn’t give an answer you‘d get battered.

Witnesses generally reported having great difficulty in finding ways of disclosing their abuse to anyone. In all instances the witnesses’ particular disability was described as a barrier to communication and disclosure, both at the time and subsequently. A number stated that this difficulty was particularly highlighted when addressing such a sensitive topic as sexual abuse. I never told my parents because I didn’t know what to say ... and I didn’t know if they’d believe me and it’s only now, many years later, that these secrets are out in the open and the Brothers can be challenged and that is why I’m here to tell you. • I reported to the ...lay Principal.... I do feel it’s ...(sexual abuse)... my fault, I told him ...(named lay ancillary worker)...I didn’t want sex but he wouldn’t listen to me. I wish I could forget about it but I can’t, it makes me sick and angry.

Twenty six (26) witnesses reported telling someone at the time that they were being abused, 19 of those witnesses stated they were believed, but not necessarily with positive consequences. Disclosures were most often made to parents, staff and authority figures within the school. There were isolated accounts of disclosure to the gardaí and a visiting priest. ‘I ran away once, the police found me. I tried to tell them I wasn’t happy and what was happening, but they wouldn’t believe me.’ Another witness gave the following account of what happened when his mother complained about physical abuse: My mother was washing me, she seen the bruises, my older brother saw black and blue. I didn’t understand, I was used to it. She said “what happened, where did you get that?” I had bruises all over my body. She wrote a letter to the head Brother and he sent for my mother. My mother and me went to talk to him and he said it wouldn’t happen again. I was about 8 or 9. After that, the next day, a few Brothers beat me up and said “shut your mouth”. They beat me up... really it was terrible. My mother did complain but what could you do?