Artane

THE inquiry into abuse at Ireland's industrial schools was in turmoil last night.

We can reveal that one of the commissioners held a senior post in a school now at the centre of a similar police investigation in England.

Last night victims at the notorious Artane school called for the immediate resignation of Bob Lewis from the inquiry set up on the orders of Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.

There is no suggestion whatsoever that Mr Lewis was involved in any wrongdoing while in his post as deputy head of a special school for pregnant girls.

However, victims of child abuse in Ireland's notorious industrial schools said his involvement in the north of England school now under police investigation made his position "untenable and inappropriate".

The pressure group representing scores of victims, Irish Survivors of Child Abuse, said Mr Lewis should quit.

The disclosure that Mr Lewis held a senior post at the school run by Lancashire County Council children's department had thrown into turmoil the Government's Commission of Inquiry into Child Abuse.

And it is a further blow to the Commission, headed by High Court judge Ms Justice Mary Laffoy, as a majority of the abuse surivors have alreadly boycotted the commission.

And in recent weeks, several Dublin-based law firms representing former pupils at Artane and Letterfrack boys' schools have recommended that their clients withdraw evidence from the commission's tribunal.

The loss of support from the victims of horrendous abuse in Irish industrial schools has raised concerns within the Government.

Said a government source: "It is disappointing that the victims have not given the Commission their full support."

Details about the probe at Mr Lewis's former special school have now been passed to the Commission of Inquiry.

A spokesman said last night: "The matter is under consideration and will be fully reviewed by the Commission at its next meeting early this week."

Mr Lewis could not be contacted for comment.

Irish SOCA's objections to Mr Lewis centres on his time as deputy head of Meadowcroft special school for girls in Preston between 1970 and 1971.

All special schools in the Lancashire County Council area now fall under an inquiry, codenamed Operation Nevada, by Greater Manchester Police.

A Greater Manchester Police spokesman said no schools have been ruled out of the inquiry so far.

However, the spokesman added that no allegations of abuse whatsoever have been levelled at Meadowcroft during the 1970s and 1980s - the period the inquiry is investigating.

John Kelly, a former pupil at Daingan Industrial school in Co Offaly and the Dublin-based spokesman for Irish Soca, said they had already raised objections about Mr Lewis' role on the Commission before news of Operation Nevada broke.

"I want to make it very clear that in no way are we saying that Mr Lewis did anything wrong, but there is a conflict of interest here," said Mr Kelly.

"He was a deputy housemaster of a girl's school and also worked at an institution for boys in Northampton in the 1960s, which came under the control of the local Catholic diocese.

"He is investigating similar institutions to those he ran in England. That's the gamekeeper investigating other gamekeepers," Kelly said.

He added that the Irish government, whose departments of Justice and Education were responsible for the running of the Industrial Schools, had to "go back to the drawing board".

Irish SOCA, he said, wanted an independent tribunal comprising of child care experts from Europe and North America to investigate their claims of systematic abuse at schools staffed mainly by the Christian Brothers.

Patrick Walsh, a former pupil at Artane who suffered years of abuse at the infamous North Dublin Industrial school, also called for Mr Lewis to resign.

"He may not have done anything wrong but there is a conflict of interest which makes his position untenable and inappropriate.

"The whole commission is doomed because of the way it was set up.

"I will be boycotting it until they set up a proper tribunal that's totally independent of the departments which had the responsibility of running places like Artane and for decades ignored what was going on there," Mr Walsh said.

Bob Lewis chairs the Confidential Committee of the Commission into Child Abuse, which hears testimony in camera from former industrial school pupils.

The SOCA group has accepted last year's public apology offered by the Christian Brothers over the involvement of members of their order in regimes of physical and sexual abuse at places like Artane.

Patrick Walsh alleges that boys informed the late Brian Lenihan, who was Minister for Justice in 1967, about the abuse while on a visit to Artane that year.

According to Walsh, the former Tanaiste brushed off the boys' complaints at the end of his visit and told his chauffeur: "Get me out of this f****** place."

One of those accused of being the chief tormentor and abuser was the late Brother Joseph O'Connor who was leader of the Artane Boys' Bands in the 1960s.

One victim, Michael O'Brien, said: "O'Connor was one of the most evil and depraved b******* that ever walked this land.

"I pray to God that he is rotting in Hell now."

He claimed O'Connor would single a boy out of the dormitory and rape and beat him in the privacy of his own room.

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