The Northern Ireland Office has begun an inquiry into what victims of the Omagh bombing have termed the "degrading treatment" of those making compensation claims following the 1998 atrocity.
It has emerged that one woman, Ms Rosemary Ingram, was forced to strip to her underwear in front of six lawyers, three of them male, so that they could examine the extent of her scars. Other families said that lawyers assessing their claims had made insensitive remarks about their injuries. Some parents of children killed in the bombing are also angry that compensation payments to them have been set at £7,500 sterling.
An NIO spokeswoman confirmed yesterday that the North's victims minister, Mr Des Browne, was aware of the alleged incidents and would inquire into the victims' treatment by the Northern Ireland Compensation Agency.
Ms Ingram (53), a former traffic warden, was helping to redirect traffic when she was struck by flying shrapnel as the 500lb "Real IRA" car-bomb exploded, killing 29 people and two unborn children. She sustained injuries to her legs, buttocks, head and right shoulder. Despite medical reports and photographs supplied by her husband, Tom, documenting her injuries, she was made to strip in front of the lawyers so that they could "get a good look".
Ms Ingram said that she had been left traumatised by the experience. "It was almost as if I wasn't believed. I had to virtually strip to prove it, and that was not only embarrassing, but degrading and humiliating, and it felt like an interrogation." She has since been told that she could have refused the examination, but at the time she was not aware of that option.
Mr Ingram, who was told to leave the room during his wife's examination, refused to do so. He put his jacket around her shoulders following the ordeal.
The North's former Victims' Commissioner, Sir Kenneth Bloomfield, said that while a proper examination of those claiming compensation was justified, the level of insensitivity displayed towards Ms Ingram and others was not acceptable.
"I think any element of insensitivity is to be deplored. Every public official dealing with any of these victims and their problems should ask himself or herself the question: 'Suppose this was a relative of mine - is that how I would like them to be treated?' That is the standard that I would like to see applied," he told BBC Radio 4.
It was difficult to understand why lawyers, who had no medical expertise, needed to examine victims given the existence of medical reports on their injuries, Sir Kenneth added.
Mr Kevin Skelton, who lost his wife, Philomena, in the atrocity, said that he had to restrain himself when compensation agency officials examined his 16-year-old daughter, Jane, who sustained facial injuries in the explosion.
Mr Skelton said that one of the officials had remarked to another that it would have been far worse if both sides of Ms Skelton's face had been scarred. "She cried when she came home. She was absolutely gutted. It is bad enough having a scar on your face, a young girl her age, without somebody making sarcastic remarks like that," he added.
Meanwhile, Mr Victor Barker, whose 12-year-old son, James, was killed in the bombing, has expressed his anger at being paid £7,500 in compensation for the loss of his son. School exam results are thought to have been taken into account by the compensation agency to calculate the lost earnings potential of teenage victims. It has also been learnt that officials demanded receipts for the clothes worn by victims on the day of the explosion.