Hospital Admits Abuse by Pediatrician

Rockefeller University Hospital in New York says multiple people experienced "inappropriate" behavior at the hands of a late doctor who treated children there for decades, inklings of which were known since 2004. An investigation that year, said to be in response to a single patient's claims, found that pediatric specialist Reginald Archibald "likely" acted inappropriately. It also turned up two prior reports on Archibald from the 1990s, reports NPR. But the hospital, which reportedly contacted the Manhattan district attorney's office, says it was unaware of other cases until another former patient came forward this year, more than a decade after Archibald's death. A second investigation, which involved talking to former patients, uncovered disturbing sexual misconduct claims, and at least one allegation of rape, reports the New York Times.

The Times also spoke with 17 people, mostly men, who said they were abused between the ages of 6 and 17. The men say Archibald, who worked at the hospital from the 1940s to the 1980s, would masturbate them or ask them to masturbate, measure their erect penises, and take photos of them naked. One describes being drugged and raped by Archibald at his summer house in Canada. A few victims say they complained, to no avail. "To know that they knew about this in 2004 and didn't reach out to people, it's absolutely outrageous," says one man. "Appalled" by the reports, the hospital says it will create a fund to cover counselling for victims. Though the statue of limitations has passed, a proposed law would create a one-year window for all victims of child sexual abuse to sue. (In New York, the Catholic Church's settled with abuse victims.)