The commission investigating the sexual abuse of minors within the Catholic church has dealt with 97 of the 568 formal complaints submitted to it, a spokesman told news agency ANP on Tuesday.

In 16 cases, formal recommendations have been made to the church authorities but it is not known if this advice will be followed or exactly what it entails, ANP said. In 32 cases, there was not enough evidence to pursue a claim and in 23 cases the charges were withdrawn.
In total, nearly 2,000 reports of abuse were made to the commission, set up last year to identify and help victims and their abusers.
The scandal broke at the end of February 2010 when newspapers reported claims of abuse at a boarding school in ‘s-Heerenberg in the 1960s and 1970s.