A nearly destroyed former state-run children’s psychiatric hospital has been sold, more than a year after it was put up for sale for more than £500,000.
Lissue House outside Lisburn, where an inquiry found children were sexually, physically and emotionally abused, was attacked in a 2016 fire.
The house and outbuildings, including a gatehouse, stables, a tennis court and walled garden, along with more than eight acres of land, was sold earlier this month.
Originally built around 1805, Lissue House is an imposing two storey former country house with a Grade B1 listing. It is designated as a site of local nature conservation interest.
It is described by the selling agents as an imposing former country house in eight acres of picturesque countryside and beautiful, mature landscaped grounds. There is a residential development potential, said the agent, who was contacted.
Some of the history of what happened inside the building was heard at the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry.
The inquiry heard claims children being treated at Lissue were locked in padded cells and put in strait jackets, allegations staff denied. One man said he was beaten with a metal spoon and left to stand in his own urine, aged just two.
Sir Anthony Hart, the chair of the HIA inquiry, found some children were “systemically” sexually abused, others drugged and restrained.
Claims of sexual, physical and emotional abuse at two children’s psychiatric hospitals – Lissue and Forster Green in Belfast – were first published in The Irish News in 2011.
One former inmate, admitted to the hospital for “intensive therapy”, claimed he was repeatedly raped by a male member of staff two or three times a month - which was denied - and gang-raped by three men.
Lissue House is on the outskirts of Lisburn City Centre, between the Lissue Road and the Ballinderry Road. It is approximately two and a half miles from Lisburn centre.
