The mother of a sexual abuse survivor has said that she believes children with special needs were specifically targeted "because they were more vulnerable" than children that didn't attend special schools.
Margaret Best’s non-verbal son Kenneth, now 55, is one of thousands of sexual abuse survivors documented in the Government’s Scoping Inquiry into historical sexual abuse at schools run by religious orders that was released this week.
"They feared authority," Mrs Best said of the children with special needs who were abused. "They didn't know any better, and they couldn't do anything about it," she told Prime Time.
Of the 2,395 allegations, 528 allegations relate to the 17 special schools run by religious orders. Of the 884 alleged abusers, 190 were said to be operating in special schools.
The report found that the "high prevalence of child sexual abuse in schools for children with disabilities is unfortunately reflective of the general trend of persons with disabilities being more likely to suffer sexual abuse in childhood."
Kenneth Best was five years old when he started attending school at Lota boarding school in Glanmire, Co Cork in 1975. The school was run by the religious order the Brothers of Charity.
It stands out as the institution with the highest number of abuse survivors. There were 166 allegations of abuse made against 50 alleged abusers by people who were at the school.
Some time after Kenneth began attending Lota, Margaret suspected abuse. When he was first placed in the boarding school Margaret recalls how he was happy and "could feed himself with a spoon."
But very soon, his capacity to do things for himself declined. Margaret also discovered a skin rash in Kenneth’s groin area, so she brought him to her GP who confirmed evidence of sexual abuse.
She had the GP write a letter to the school, which she handed into them. The letter said, that "this must never happen again." Although she was led to believe that he was being looked after, her complaints went unheeded.
Kenneth spent almost eight years at Lota, and throughout that time Margaret repeatedly complained.
"I thought that by complaining to the Brothers of Charity, that something would have been done about it and that this would stop. I was given to understand that this matter would be dealt with. They never really dealt with anything. I think they saw me as a bit of a nuisance, and I was constantly complaining and constantly doing something about it. I wasn't staying quiet, and I suppose I was a thorn in their sides to a certain extent," Mrs Best said.
When she finally removed him after being convinced of ongoing abuse, she realised he was deeply traumatised.
"He was shying away from me, whom he had no fear of, nor should he have fear of. It took a long while when I brought him out for good. It took a long while before he stopped with all those [gestures], putting his hands to his head and protecting himself," Mrs Best said.
"I feel very guilty and I'm living with my guilt of listening to so-called professionals when I was a very young woman, a young mother in my early 20s, that I was told at the time that Kenneth would be better in a place like the Brothers of Charity in Lota, because he would be educated," Mrs Best said.
"He was not educated in any way, shape or form. I thought in my innocence at the time that, 'Oh well, he'll be educated and maybe he'll be able to do something for himself. No, that did not happen," Mrs Best added.
Two decades later when the Government set up the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse in 2000 and the Residential Redress Board in 2002, Margaret sought answers for her son.
However, there were many bureaucratic issues and Margaret soon gave up.
"They persisted in writing letters to Kenneth when they were repeatedly told that he could not write, he could not read, he could not speak. I wrote to them ‘please don't write to him,’ but these letters, the stupid letters kept coming back."
Monday’s Scoping report states that children who were abused while attending special schools were insufficiently acknowledged in previous state inquiries.
It concludes "in light of the limited consideration of special schools in CICA [Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse], and the sheer volume of allegations recorded by the religious orders in respect of such schools, the Scoping Inquiry considers that special schools should be within the scope of a future inquiry".
To this day, Kenneth has never had his abuse case acknowledged by the State, which is why Margaret says she welcomes the Scoping Inquiry.
"Reports are always positive if something is done about them. It's lovely to do a report and it's lovely to read and it's lovely to look at. But unless you act on it and do something constructive, it's not going to work," Mrs Best said.
A statement from the Catholic Education Partnership released in light of the Scoping Inquiry report said: "It is painfully clear that children and the trust of their families were betrayed in the most devastating of ways."
It added that "the Catholic Education Partnership commits to working with our stakeholders and the State to ensure that we uphold out moral, civic, and statutory responsibilities."