A public inquiry has begun in Northern Ireland into what has been described as the biggest adult safeguarding scandal to affect the National Health Service (NHS).
It concerns multiple allegations of abuse of vulnerable adults by staff at a state-run hospital.
An ongoing police investigation is reviewing hundreds of thousands of hours of CCTV from inside Muckamore Abbey Hospital near Antrim.
The investigation has seen 34 suspects arrested and 38 people referred for potential prosecution.
Eight people are already before the courts on charges of ill-treatment, neglect and unlawful detention.
Stormont's Department of Health said 72 staff have been placed on precautionary suspension.
The inquiry was announced in September 2020 by Stormont’s Health Minister Robin Swann, who said there had been a "shocking failure" of governance and that families had been badly let down.
In his opening remarks this morning the inquiry chairperson Tom Kark QC said that without predetermining any issue, it was obvious that bad practices had been allowed to persist at the hospital "to the terrible detriment of a number of patients".
He added: "Those patients themselves were all without exception highly vulnerable in different ways and so, it is understandable that there is considerable public anger at some of what has already been revealed.
Mr Kark said that: "Relatives and carers who entrusted their loved ones to the hospital to be cared for with compassion, have discovered that in many cases, that's not what was happening".
"Because so many of the patients were either nonverbal or had difficulty communicating, they couldn't express what was happening, or they were not regarded as credible," he said.
Mr Kark also said "many of the parents and relatives and carers who trusted the hospital had been let down and they are understandably furious and some feel guilty".
Northern Ireland's health minister Robin Swann has said the proceedings will be a harrowing experience for all those affected by the abject failure of care at Muckamore.
Muckamore is a facility for people with severe learning difficulties, many of whom are non-verbal.
There are currently fewer than 60 residents in the hospital. In the mid-80s, the number was close to 1,500.
The hospital provides long-term residential care, although efforts have been made to phase it out and use community-based services instead.
Concerns came to light in 2017 after Glynn Brown raised questions about an assault by a staff member on his autistic son Aaron (pictured), then aged 20.
Mr Brown's persistence revealed that the CCTV system installed in the hospital was recording material, something staff and management seemed to be unaware of.
He was later told his son had been the subject of multiple assaults by staff inside the hospital.
He is the spokesman for a pressure group of other families.
"The public are totally unaware of how big and how deep this is going to be," said Mr Brown.
He said it would dwarf a previous NHS adult safeguarding scandal at Winterbourne View Private Hospital in England which saw 11 staff members plead guilty to 38 charges of abuse.
Mr Brown (pictured) said he hoped the inquiry would lay bare the scale of what had happened at Muckamore.
Belfast solicitor Claire McKeegan of Phoenix Law represents the families of more than 30 current or former residents of Muckamore.
"We have families who have got loved ones in a hospital who have no trust, no faith that they are being appropriately looked after. This is a live issue, it's an ongoing issue."
"What we're seeing here is the largest safeguarding scandal in the history of the NHS in a public hospital.
"What I'm hearing from families is hugely distressing," said Ms McKeegan.
The public inquiry and the PSNI have agreed procedures to ensure that the public inquiry and the police investigation can run in tandem.
Meanwhile, the Health Minister said he has no doubt that the inquiry proceedings will be a harrowing experience for all those affected by the abject failure of care at Muckamore.
"It will also be deeply distressing for everyone who works in health and social care in Northern Ireland," Mr Swann said.
He again apologised to the patients and families affected.
"I believe it is appropriate today for me to publicly reiterate my previous apology on behalf of the Health and Social Care system to all the patients and families who have been so badly let down," he said.
He also said that people need more than apologies.
"They deserve the truth on what has happened and how it was allowed to happen. I trust that this public inquiry will provide the answers that are required," he added.
