Medical treatment was used as cover for sexual abuse of children, inquiry concludes

The sexual abuse of children in healthcare settings has typically been carried out under the guise of medical procedures, the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse in England and Wales has concluded.

Perpetrators were commonly male GPs or other healthcare practitioners with clinical access to children, who were in positions of trust and whose actions were not questioned by parents, children, or other staff, a research report for the inquiry found.1

The report, based on victims’ experiences from the 1960s to the early 2000s as told to the inquiry’s Truth Project, is the fifth report from the inquiry. Set up in 2015 to look at how institutions …