likely to show the situation is worse than anticipated.

"The incidence of neglect, emotional, physical and sexual abuse in Bermuda is probably greater than most people realise,'' chairman of the Task Force on Child Abuse Mr. Saul Froomkin said yesterday.

The committee of ten is currently in the process of interviewing social workers, parents, victims and perpetrators for a first ever survey highlighting the extent of the problem.

The report was commissioned over a year ago by former Health and Social Services Minister the Hon. Quinton Edness to discover the causes of child abuse and where Government should be allocating funds to tackle the problem.

Yesterday, executive director of the Institute for Child and Family Health Mrs. Sheelagh Cooper expressed hope that the Hon. Harry Soares, the newly appointed Health Minister, would bring the issue of child abuse to the forefront.

In the past, she claimed, the issue had "simply been put on the back burner''.

"There has been no push by the former Minister to get the committee to come to the wicket,'' she said. "The committee was set up two weeks before the last election. Since then it has simply done nothing but put the issue on the backburner while giving the impression that something is being done.'' The Institute, which has counselled 270 victims of child abuse and their families since it opened last November, claims 2,000 children are witnesses to or are victims of domestic violence a year.

In the United States, statistics show one in four young girls will suffer from the effects of sexual abuse some time before adulthood.

While as yet there are no statistics to prove the case is the same in Bermuda, Institute spokesman Mrs. Kit Swainson said the situation here could be worse.

"Indications are that there is no reason to believe that the situation here is any better than what is reported outside,'' she said. "Indeed, there are some cultural and historical patterns deeply rooted in this community which suggest that the problem may be worse.'' Surveys in the United Kingdom and North America show one in five to one in three women and between three and nine percent of men were victims of some form of childhood sexual abuse. Furthermore, 11 percent of parents have kicked, punched, beaten or used objects to hurt their children.

"Adults are often shocked by the tragic outcome of their behaviour,'' Mrs.

Swainson said. "They often injure children when they are unable to control their anger or to gauge their own strength.'' Mr. Froomkin said yesterday he could not comment on the statistics which he had not seen.