ADULTS who claim they were abused as children in the Goldenbridge Orphanage in Dublin may take a civil case against their alleged abusers, following yesterday's decision by the Director of Public Prosecutions not to proceed with prosecutions.
It is understood that the gardai did not have sufficient evidence to support the allegations.
Ms Christine Buckley, who appeared in the RTE television documentary on Goldenbridge, Dears Daughter, said that survivors of Goldenbridge would look upon the decision as a "travesty of justice" and said that the timing and content of yesterday's announcement showed clearly that the justice system was never going to deal with the affair.
"I understand from a number of the victims that this is not the end of it," said Ms Buckley. "I see no reason why it should not go as a civil case, and a number of victims have contacted me about that."
Ms Buckley, a former resident of the orphanage run by the Sisters of Mercy, was the daughter of a 31-year-old married woman from Dublin and a 20-year-old Nigerian medical student.
She was one of a number of former Goldenbridge orphans who alleged abuse against children in the Inchicore orphanage during the 1940s and 1950s.
She said claims that the case had not proceeded because she had refused to go to the gardai were scandalous. "There were hundreds of other victims who had injuries much more horrific than mine who did go to the guards," she said.
She denied there had been a division between former residents of Goldenbridge over whether the alleged abuse had actually taken place.
She said that of the 200 former Goldenbridge children who contacted her, none had denied that abuse had taken place.