Name and address withheld.
I WRITE regarding the article by Elaine Byrne (JEP, 2 September) in which she gives Hermann Kelly, author of ‘Kathy’s Real Story’, the opportunity to decry the Irish Redress Board as a cashpoint machine spewing out money to ‘virtually anyone who keys in a claim’.

Hermann Kelly has indeed uncovered a shameful fraud perpetrated by an individual, but it is wrong to tar the majority of abuse victims with that brush. Jersey has nothing to fear from setting up a similar Redress Board, and I suggest that your interested readers should research the Irish model on www.rirbie.

I have personal experience of the Residential Institutions Redress Board of Eire (southern Ireland), and I would commend it to Jersey’s victims of abuse and also to Jersey’s government as a fair and compassionate process that provides a measure of redress for those who have suffered abuse as children in local childcare homes and institutions such as Haut de la Garenne.

I spent much of my childhood in institutions, placed there by order of the Irish government, where I was bullied, physically beaten, emotionally abused, forcibly separated from my brothers and sisters and denied a worthwhile education. For many years I wondered what I had done wrong to deserve this treatment at the hands of so-called Christians and government officials.

It was too unbearable for me and my siblings to discuss our feelings and experiences, and this has contributed to numerous emotional difficulties in life for all of us. Due to huge public pressure, the Irish government finally admitted its responsibility and apologised for the abuse of children carried out in the many institutions subject to government controls.

The Redress Board was set up to give abuse victims a compassionate hearing, provide counselling and emotional support and make fair and reasonable awards. There is a scale of compensation and a disputes procedure if victims dispute the award.

At first I was very reluctant to make myself known to the Redress Board, mainly due to the stigma of being a child raised in an institution; even my husband knew nothing of my childhood. Eventually (after much soul-searching), I found the courage to face my childhood experiences and chose to seek redress, as did my siblings.

The experience of redress has been a positive one, strengthened us as individuals and restored some of our faith in a government that has had the courage to say sorry and accept responsibility. Many victims of abuse have no faith in the justice system and have no wish to be on show in court where they can be exploited and belittled by lawyers.
A Jersey Redress Board is the way forward and will go far in restoring public faith in what we must hope is a decent and caring government.

My best wishes go to those people abused as children while in care and to those good citizens who campaign for redress on their behalf.