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LONDON — Britain has been stunned by revelations about child sexual abuse, a judge said Thursday, warning that the true scale of the crime has been underestimated and one in 20 children may have been a victim.

Justice Lowell Goddard opened a wide-ranging public inquiry into decades of abuse in Britain’s schools, hospitals and other institutions, vowing that “no one, no matter how apparently powerful, will be allowed to obstruct our inquiries.”

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A dam of official silence around child abuse in Britain began to break after the 2011 death of entertainer Jimmy Savile, when dozens came forward to say he had abused them. Subsequent revelations have implicated taxi drivers, entertainers, clergy, senior politicians and others. There have also been claims that police failed to investigate allegations of abuse for decades.

Earlier this year Goddard, a judge from New Zealand, was appointed to investigate how public agencies — including government bodies, police, hospitals, the army, churches and the BBC — handled allegations.