abuse.

Ms Sheelagh Cooper, co-chairman of Bermuda's Coalition for the Protection of Children, said her group waited eight months for Government to complete investigations into Nambour Day Nursery in Paget.

"We feel that this matter has not come to a satisfactory conclusion, and that there is still a whole host of questions left unanswered,'' Ms Cooper told The Royal Gazette yesterday.

A Commission of Inquiry was needed.

Attorney General Mr. Walter Maddocks said yesterday a Police probe at Nambour was completed and the file was in his chambers.

"It's a big file, and we're working our way through it,'' Mr. Maddocks said.

A decision on whether to lay charges was expected in a few days.

"I don't know what such a commission could be expected to achieve,'' Mr.

Maddocks said.

Public inquiries had been called into broad issues like race relations, but not into such specific concerns, he said.

As well as a Police probe, the Ministry of Health and Social Services has investigated allegations of abuse at Nambour. The Hon. Quinton Edness, who heads the Ministry, has said some children who attended the day nursery were traumatised. But how that trauma was caused had not been determined, he said.

The family that ran Nambour has decided to sell the day nursery. They maintain the allegations are without foundation. Numerous parents have come to their support.

Ms Cooper said an inquiry would give the owners "the opportunity to clear their names.'' Also, "I'm concerned that a particular nursery school has drawn the brunt of the media's attention in relation to the overall issue of the abuse of children,'' Ms Cooper said. "I think it's important that a Commission of Inquiry be given the broadest possible terms of reference.'' Police and Ministry policies and procedures and laws related to child abuse should be examined, she said.

The coalition has told both Mr. Edness and Chief Medical Officer Dr. John Cann an inquiry was needed, she said.

It was not important exactly what form the inquiry took, as long as it was impartial and run by knowledgeable people, she said. And its results should be made public.

The coalition established The Institute for Child and Family Health and has hired four therapists to work with the traumatised children, Ms Cooper said.