Victims campaigner slams Secretary of State for "abandoning" abuse survivors

by Stewart Robson

A survivor of institutional abuse has criticised the Secretary of State's behaviour in dealing with victims' cases.

Margaret McGuckin was speaking outside the Royal Courts of Justice on the first day of a legal case against Karen Bradley.

The campaigner is a founding member of the SAVIA abuse survivors group. 

Recommendations made by a senior judge in January which included monetary payouts to victims, have not been implemented.

Ms Bradley has argued that the redress issue is a devolved matter that should be dealt with by the Northern Ireland Executive.

Northern Ireland hasn't had a functioning government since it collapsed in early 2016.

The case was adjourned two months ago by Mr Justice McCloskey as the Secretary of State was planning to introduce legislation to give civil servants clearer guidance on what decisions they can make regarding Northern Ireland affairs.

All major parties criticised Ms Bradley's half-day visit last week which included a briefing on the proposed new legislation.

Political representatives from the UUP, SDLP and Alliance were in court supporting the victims.

Ms McGuckin said: "We were delighted to have the smaller parties [here] who fully support us.

"We believe that the two main parties and MLAs could have got this over the line long ago. They chose not to. They're squabbling between each other meanwhile more of our survivors are dying. Just another died at the weekend.

"We will continue in our battle against the Secretary of State and anyone who comes against us getting any form of justice."

SDLP councillor Tim Attwood said: "It is not acceptable that men and women who have suffered so much have to wait so long for redress.

"The reality is survivors are dying while the redress scheme is delayed."