Radio Netherlands Worldwide
Published on 7 May 2010 – 8:46am
Over the past two months 1500 people have contacted a Dutch helpline registering cases of child sex abuse in Roman Catholic schools, churches and homes.
The figure was published in the run-up to a press conference by independent investigator Wim Deetman, who was asked by the Roman Catholic bishops in the Netherlands to investigate the reports about sexual abuse. On Friday Mr Deetman is expected to explain how he will conduct his research, which questions he will focus on and who he will be talking to.
Mr Deetman is a Protestant, and a former politician who served as Education Minister, mayor of The Hague and speaker of the Lower House.
Scandals
Following publications by RNW and daily NRC Handelsblad, helplines were swamped by people who said that as children they had been sexually abused by Catholic priests and nuns. Some 50 of them have taken their cases to court; in many other cases the alleged perpetrators have died.
The revelations followed widespread sexual abuse scandals involving Roman Catholic clergy in the US, Ireland, Germany and Austria.
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