40 harrowing calls a day to head of abuse charity

THe head of an abuse survivors charity fielded up to 40 phone calls a day from distraught victims because ‘no one else was doing it’, an inquiry heard yesterday.

In evidence at the Child abuse Inquiry, In Care Survivors (INCaS) chairman Helen Holland revealed that in the mid-2000s the charity was inundated with dozens of callers who suffered institutional abuse.

The edinburgh inquiry yesterday heard the charity’s only function at the time was the 24-hour helpline which linked directly to Miss Holland, leaving her to support the victims on her own.

She revealed how, in manning the phones, she had been called to self-harm incidents and hospitals. She also received threats and was even on the line with one male caller who hanged himself during their conversation.

Inquiry chairman Lady Smith said: ‘It sounds like a tremendous responsibility you took on.’

Miss Holland replied: ‘It was, but no one else was doing it, so we had to.’

She became a founding member of INCaS in 1999 after her attempts to get justice for the abuse she suffered at Nazareth House in Kilmarnock failed.

The charity had essentially wound down by 2005, with only the helpline in operation.

But Miss Holland then began to experience a sharp rise in callers, leading to the charity committee reforming. She said: ‘you could get 40 calls in a day.’

describing the calls, she added: ‘I’ve been called up in the middle of the night by police because somebody’s self-harmed.’

She also recalled how one caller committed suicide by hanging himself. She said: ‘He was absolutely distraught, I tried to get him to calm down. I kept begging him to allow me to contact someone on his behalf.’

‘He went on to explain his children had been taken from him that day and he had nothing left to live for. at that time he was standing on a chair and I heard a thump when it hit the floor.’

Miss Holland criticised the Catholic Church and the Scottish Government for failing to have an inquiry sooner and for failing to accept the state’s role.

Speaking of the Church, she said: ‘We wanted it to reach out with compassion. We never ever got the opportunity to meet with it until February of this year.’

of the Government, she recalled how at one meeting with civil servants she was told: ‘We can’t have the room full of nutters.’

The inquiry continues.