Another abuse scandal: a project group set up by the Catholic Church presents its final report. Cases of physical and psychological violence come to light.
[Augsburg -] For decades there has been sexual abuse and brutal physical and psychological violence against children in two children’s homes in the Augsburg district.
This is what a project group set up by the Catholic diocese of Augsburg to clarify in its final report.
In the 1960s and 1970s, two priests in particular are said to have sexually assaulted male children and a young person in the Josefsheim riding book in Fischach, the group reported on Thursday. Other children were therefore abused by employees and even a neighbor of the home. In the Marienheim Baschenegg in Ustersbach, religious sisters are said to have exercised violence against children until 2004.
Most of the accused are no longer alive, reported the President of the Bavarian State Social Court, Elisabeth Mette, who led the investigation. According to her, a total of more than 30 victims, men and women, worked on the reappraisal.
According to the final report, home children were forced to eat vomit again. Runaways had their bald heads shaved, and there was also a windowless three-square-meter basement room to lock up the children.
In the past decade, the Catholic Church has been rocked by abuse scandals around the world. It has become known that children have been sexually and physically abused in many homes in the past. [dpa]
