INVESTIGATORS have been urged to treat the Tuam baby scandal as a “criminal investigation”, it has emerged.
Leading human rights lawyer Kevin Winters – who represents campaigner Anna Corrigan – told how he had written to Gardai last year over his concerns of “criminality” at the site.
Mr Winters made the claim as excavation work at the former mother and baby home in Tuam, Co Galway, started this morning.
The project started 11 years after historian Catherine Corless established there were no burial records for almost 800 babies and infants who died at the home, run by the Bon Secours Sisters, between 1925 and 1961.
The Belfast-based lawyer wants the Garda’s system of recording incidents – known as Pulse – to be used in the mother and baby probe.
Mr Winters said: “We wrote to Gardai including local Gardai at Tuam urging them to treat the scandal as a criminal investigation.
“Despite repeated requests from both Annie and ourselves they failed to assign Gardai Pulse investigation numbers until last month when she received confirmation they would issue.
“There could have been various forms of criminality at this site and with the advances in technology, hopefully this can be established through the excavation work.
“The industrial volumes of buried infants and the manner in which they met their fate clearly points to criminality.
“It will be momentous to see the assignment of PULSE record numbers as that crystallises formal criminal investigation status upon this historical human rights debacle.”
Mr Winters added: “Equally important is the requirement that the Coroner in Galway upscales intervention after opening the case as far back as 2017.
“There needs to be an inquest into the circumstances surrounding the death of Annie’s siblings and all other unexplained deaths.
“There was a suffocating toxicity about the historic Irish State-Catholic Church relationship which helped foment the horrors of Tuam.”
Ms Corrigan, whose brothers William and John died at the home, is also taking a civil case against the Bon Secours Sisters and other agencies of the State.
‘WON’T REST UNTIL JUSTICE’
She described today’s development as “both welcome and difficult”, adding: “Whilst it’s a relief to see work started on the site it’s really only the latest stage in what is still a long road for all of us.”
“What happened at Tuam was criminal so there needs to be both Church and State accountability.
“I won’t rest until I see justice for my two brothers who not only need a proper Christian burial but also the full rigours of the law, both domestic and international, applied.”
We asked the Gardai for a comment on the claims but no one was available.
