Northern Ireland police to probe abuse at church-run homes

LONDON (AP) — Police in Northern Ireland have announced an investigation into allegations of physical and sexual abuse at church-run institutions that housed unmarried women and their children. Wednesday’s announcement came a day after an independent panel recommended a public inquiry to examine human rights abuses in the homes, so-called Magdalene laundries and workhouses. A major study published earlier this year found that more than 14,000 girls and women spent time at nun-run laundries and mother-and-baby homes, which housed women and girls who became pregnant outside marriage. The institutions operated from the 1920s to 1990. The study found that women were mistreated, held against their will and many were forced to give up children for adoption.