AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, June 25 (UPI) -- An investigation indicates a single person was responsible for the deaths of dozens of boys in a Catholic-run mental institution in the Netherlands.
Radio Netherlands Worldwide said Monday research by De Limburger, a newspaper in the Dutch province of Limburg, notes a high mortality rate at St. Joseph's mental institution from 1952 to 1954, and that a monk, Brother Andreas, was responsible for the deaths of severely handicapped boys.
The number of deaths was not reported, and the report said it was unclear if the deaths were homicides, caused by neglect or motivated to spare the boys of suffering.
The newspaper said the monk, also referred to as Brother Death, is deceased.
In 2011, the Dutch Catholic bishops issued an apology after an independent commission found instances of as many as 20,000 cases of sexual abuse against children in Catholic institutions in the Netherlands since 1945. The commission said charges had been leveled against some 800 clergy and lay workers, 105 of whom were still alive at the time.
