16/02/2007

Sex abuse probe into County Antrim hospital

A major police investigation has been launched after the emergence of allegations that a patient has been sexually abused in a County Antrim hospital.

Muckamore Abbey Hospital, which deals with people with mental illnesses and learning disabilities, is to be investigated in relation to a number of allegations of sexual abuse between the 1960s and the 1980s after a former patient claimed that he had been abused by an older patient while staying at the hospital.

The investigation was launched after the North and West Belfast Trust and Eastern Health and Social Services Board reported the allegations to the PSNI.

It is understood that an examination of the patient's hospital notes found references that he had made complaints of sexual incidents involving an older patient and also incidents involving other patients, both minors and adults.

Last month, the hospital was at the centre of another investigation, when it was revealed that over 100 adults and 17 children with learning difficulties were kept in the hospital long after they should have been discharged due to a lack of care in the community resources available.

At the same time, it also emerged that convicted sex offenders were living in close proximity to a ward housing children with learning difficulties.

(EF)


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