A CATHOLIC Church report suggests levels of sexual assault and rape of children in their care peaked in the 1950s.
The academic review of historical allegations of abuse at orphanages and churches uncovered hundreds of accusations made against priests and other figures, stretching back dozens of years, with the high-water mark occurring in 1953.
However, campaigners have raised doubts over the figures, saying that the majority of the abuse would have been swept under the carpet and not entered into official records.
Dr Ben Torsney, of the University of Glasgow, found almost 400 cases or reports of abuse in Scotland between 1943 and 2005 during a probe launched at the behest of the Scottish Bishops.
Recorded allegations reached a peak in 1953 with 124 reports, and then began to fall with no more than five a year between 1990 and 2005, according to the study.
The majority of the allegations concerned sexual abuse, which was mentioned 108 times. In total, 55 of the 59 allegations against priests involved sexual matters, while 265 were of physical abuse, one was of verbal abuse, and five were said to be emotional abuse.
The Scottish Catholic Observer reports that Dr Torsney found there were 59 cases related to diocesan clergy, while 257 reports concerned the Daughters of Charity, who ran the Smyllum Park orphanage which has been at the centre of recent testimony to the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry in Edinburgh.
Almost 50 other cases concerned religious brothers, nine related to priests of religious orders, one to a church volunteer, one to a permanent deacon, and five did not identify an alleged perpetrator.
The report found that abuse allegations covered the entire country. More than 30 allegations were made against Marist Brothers, 28 against other religious orders, 20 against clergy of St Andrews & Edinburgh Archdiocese, 16 against Glasgow Archdiocese, 10 against Motherwell Diocese, and five, four, three and two against Galloway, Argyll and the Isles, Paisley and Dunkeld respectively. There were no cases recorded in Aberdeen Diocese.
An estimated 2,064 priests served in Scotland during the period.
Alan Draper, of the In-Care Abuse Survivors (Incas) network, said he was “surprised” by the figures. He said: “It’s meaningless if they are only telling us the number of allegations, because I would expect that 99 per cent of the actual cases were never recorded. They would have been swept under the carpet. What we need is a detailed examination of what happened.
“Who was involved? Was one priest reported 20 times? What happened to him? Did the Church reach out to the survivors? We need answers to these questions. Without that a statistical survey is worth little”
The study was commissioned following the publication of the McLellan Commission report into safeguarding in 2015. Announced following a series of scandals, it looked at records of abuse allegations held by Scottish dioceses and religious orders.
The commission made a number of recommendations but the church has been criticised by victims for the slow pace with which these have been implemented.
The ongoing public inquiry into abuse in residential care in Scotland has heard from former residents of Smyllum Park orphanage, in Lanark, who testified about receiving beatings and ill-treatment at hands of the nuns of the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul, who ran it. The nun in charge of the Catholic order offered her ‘most sincere apologies’ in January after hearing horrifying testimony.
The introduction to Dr Torsney’s report says a ‘comprehensive review of safeguarding procedures’ is nearing completion.
“It is hoped that the publication of this review demonstrates the Bishops’ ongoing commitment to openness and transparency,” it sayys. “It also provides an opportunity for the Church to repeat and renew apologies made to those who have suffered any form of abuse.”
The Church also stressed that the report is not an ‘infallible assessment’ of abuse allegations, and said it is possible abuse has taken place but has not been reported or recorded.
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