KEY FACTS FROM THE INQUIRY INTO THE CHILD MIGRATION PROGRAMME:
* Called Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, led by Professor Alexis Jay
* 48 witnesses, many former migrants, 30,000 documents
* 4000 children sent after World War II, between 1940s and 1970, mostly to 39 Australian institutions under the Child Migration Programme
* Report found sexual and other forms of abuse at 16 institutions
* Report's key findings:
"Many witnesses described 'care' regimes which included physical abuse, emotional abuse and neglect, as well as sexual abuse, in the various settings to which they were sent.
"Some described constant hunger, medical neglect and poor education, the latter of which had, in several instances, lifelong consequences."
* Report blames British government and recommends compensation be paid to the surviving 2000 migrants:
"This was a deeply flawed policy, as HMG (Her Majesty's Government) now accepts. It was badly executed by many voluntary organisations and local authorities, but was allowed by successive British governments to remain in place, despite a catalogue of evidence which showed that children were suffering ill treatment and abuse, including sexual abuse.
"The policy in itself was indefensible and HMG could have decided to bring it to an end, or mitigated some of its effects in practice by taking action at certain points, but it did not do so."
Case history:
Michael O'Donoghue was placed in the care of Nazareth House in Hampshire in the 1940s, where he suffered sexual abuse. He was eventually sent to Australia in 1953 to the Clontarf institution.
"In terms of physical abuse, on only his second day, he was beaten for wetting the bed, and the children were told that if any complaints against the (Christian) Brothers got out, they would be flogged.
"The Brothers also organised boxing matches between the children, and selected older boys were given total authority to beat the younger ones."
Mr O'Donoghue told the inquiry that "animals were fed better than the children who resorted to getting scraps out of the bins".
He was later sexually abused by several men, including a theatre manager and a man named as Brother Murphy, who was described as a "sadistic paedophile".
"I have lived a lifetime without identity and borne the terrible legacy of being a British child who was abandoned by my country."
