There are at least 547 children who were reported to be abused in Germany's world famous Regensburger Domspatzen boy's choir as revealed by the final report on Tuesday, July 18.
According to the report released during a press conference by lawyer Ulrich Weber, the in-charge of the clarification regarding the abuse scandal at the Regenzburger Domspatzen boy's choir, there were decades of beatings and sexual abuse.
The report was released after two years of inquiry which spanned cases from 1945 to early 1990s. It can be recalled that seven years after the first case was made public, the number of physical abuse incidents resulted to 500. The Roman Catholic diocese of Regensburg and the choir has assigned attorney Weber to look into the scandal.
According to the victims of the incidents, their participation in the choir was the worst time of their lives and compared their experience to "hell," "concentration camp" and "prison."
The initial report, which was released in early 2016, revealed that there are 231 abused children in the choir; but, the final report doubled the number of the victims.
"The content of the documentation is hard," Ulrich Weber reportedly said, as quoted by the German newspaper, Bild. "Many affected former students described the between 1945 and 1992 as the worst of her life, marked by violence, fear and helplessness."
Weber also added that the cases of abuse were focused on the preschool of the choir. Moreover, the 49 suspects and accused were already identified after a thorough investigation during the last two years.
The victims and affected of the abuse scandal will receive around 20,000 euros (approximately 23,115 US dollars) for compensation payments.
"I cannot make it undone, I can only ask the victims for forgiveness," Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer previously said in a statement.
