The body of a 13-year-old boy who died in 1970 will be exhumed today in Kilkenny city, as part of a long-running Garda investigation into allegations of sexual and physical abuse of children at a reform school in Letterfrack, Co Galway.
It is understood that William Delaney, Whitebridge, Kilkenny, a member of the settled Travelling community, had just returned to his home in Kilkenny from the reform school for the summer holidays when he died.
Gardai decided to exhume his body after fellow residents at the school alleged he had been severely beaten shortly before he left the Letterfrack reformatory.
On the day he arrived at his parents' home, in July 1970, he complained of a headache. Shortly after being examined by a doctor, he collapsed in the home. He was brought to St Luke's Hospital, Kilkenny, but never regained consciousness.
This morning the Assistant State Pathologist, Dr Marie Cassidy, will carry out a post-mortem in the same hospital. The body will then be reburied.
The boy had been sent to the Letterfrack reformatory when he was nine on foot of a court order.
Following a five-year Garda investigation which intensified in the last 18 months, 19 files detailing allegations of sexual and physical abuse of boys at the reformatory have been forwarded to the DPP. The allegations first came to light in April 1996. Since then gardai have taken statements from dozens of former residents of the reformatory, some of whom are now living in Britain, the US and Germany.
Some have also told gardai they were further abused when they were transferred from the Letterfrack institution to St Joseph's Industrial School in Salthill, which was also run by the Christian Brothers.
This school had also been under investigation, and a number of prosecutions have been secured. "Whatever happens this will help us to finally come to terms with what happened in that place," William's sister, Kathleen, said.