Historical abuse: Children's home 'robbed our dad of his life'

Lindsay O'Neill said her father struggled in his life after the abuse he suffered when he was young

The daughter of a man who was physically and sexually abused at a Belfast children's home has said he was robbed of the life he could have had.

Lindsay O'Neill and her siblings have been awarded £250,000 in damages for the suffering endured by their late father.

John McGuinness was a resident at Nazareth Lodge from the age of five to seven.

His daughter said he had finally received justice.

"He's believed," Ms O'Neill told BBC News NI. "That is the best thing that's come out of this."

Mr McGuinness took legal action against the Sisters of Nazareth, the religious order that ran Nazareth Lodge on Ravenhill Road in south Belfast.

He died from a heart attack in 2020 at the age of 59 - before the case could reach its conclusion.

Last week, awarding damages, a High Court judge said Mr McGuinness's life had been "blighted" by the treatment he suffered at the children's home.

Mr McGuinness said a number of nuns assaulted him and alleged a handyman who worked at the home subjected him to regular sexual assaults in the toilets.

When contacted by BBC News NI, the Sisters of Nazareth said it had no comment.

Ms O'Neill, who took on her father's case after his death, said he was "told if you tell anybody anything, bad things are going to happen to your mum".

"The whole depravity of it all. Thinking that he was going to be kept safe. And it was actually nuns that did it. It's just awful."

She said her father "struggled a lot" in life.

"I think when I got older and understood it, I realised my daddy's got problems because of what happened to him.

"Trying to get over it, daily. On a good day he was great. But we didn't get a chance to get a good day every day because of what he went through and experienced."

Mrs O'Neill added: "If that hadn't have happened to my daddy, he would have had a completely different life. We all would have. And they've robbed him of that."

John McGuinness, pictured with his daughter Lindsay, died before his case concluded

'Wanted to be believed'

During the legal proceedings, the defendants argued that the form of alleged corporal punishment used when Mr McGuinness was a resident had been "appropriate and commensurate to the accepted educational practices".

Solicitor Claire McKeegan, who represented Mr McGuinness, told BBC News NI: "His case was accepted by the court - he was believed in full, which was something that was so important to him the whole way along.

"He wanted to get justice, he wanted to get accountability and he wanted, like so many other survivors of historical institutional abuse, to be believed and vindicated."

She said that while the £250,000 in damages awarded to Mr McGuinness' family may seem high, "the sad thing is that it is recognition of the pain and suffering that John endured and carried throughout his life".

"So it is not a windfall for his family. It is justice."

What was historical institutional abuse in Northern Ireland?

Mr McGuinness's case is the latest to emerge from abuse carried out at children's homes in Northern Ireland.

The Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) Inquiry studied allegations of abuse in 22 homes and other residential institutions between 1922 to 1995.

These were facilities run by the state, local authorities, the Catholic Church, the Church of Ireland and the children's charity Barnardo's.

The public inquiry, led by the late Sir Anthony Hart, found that there was widespread abuse and mistreatment of young residents across the institutions.