PEOPLE NEED to broaden their focus from clerical child sex abuse and recognise that four out of five children who suffer abuse are hurt by family members or other trusted adults, a charity has said.
Cari, which specialises in providing support services for children and families, has also called for a major shake-up of the State’s provision of services for children, which lag behind those for adults.
Publishing its annual report yesterday, Cari chief executive Mary Flaherty said it was “totally unacceptable” that the Government and Health Service Executive had not provided abused children with the same therapeutic and support services now available to adults.
She said a nationwide adult counselling service was established after publication of the Ferns report into clerical child sex abuse. However, the Government has still not implemented the recommendations of a children’s working group set up after publication of the same report, she said.
“There is a deafening and indefensible silence from both the HSE and the Minister for Children on this report to date . . . Is this Government saying to these young people, cope with this until you are an adult and then we will offer you a specialised service? This is unconscionable,” said Ms Flaherty.
Dr Niall Muldoon said it was time that people broadened their focus on clerical abuse and recognise that 80 per cent of child abuse is perpetrated by family members or other trusted adults.
“This should not be an either or scenario because the needs of both adult survivors, or clerical or other abuse, and children who are currently experiencing abuse should be adequately and urgently addressed,” said Dr Muldoon.
The most recent HSE statistics show there were 2,379 reports of child sexual abuse made in 2008. Just 12 per cent of reports were confirmed as cases of sex abuse, which Cari believe is extremely low by international standards.
Dr Muldoon said 30 per cent of cases were rejected after only initial assessments by the HSE.
“My guess is that somewhere along the line children who report abuse are being lost,” he said.
Cari, which operates a helpline for children and families, said it experienced a 33 per cent rise in the number of calls from adult victims of abuse in 2009 following publication of the Ryan and Murphy reports. It also saw a 25 per cent rise in calls concerning sexualised behaviour in young children, which it attributes to exposure to online adult content and games. Cari also revealed it almost closed down last year after suffering a massive dip in fundraising and cuts in State support.
Income raised from Fundraising halved to €256,888 in 2009, compared to €582,772 in 2007. This forced Cari to lay off one-third of its staff last year.
Meanwhile, Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy has urged all individuals and organisations, which suspect incidents of child sex abuse, to report them.
He made the appeal yesterday at the launch of a new Garda policy on the investigation of sexual crime, crimes against children and child welfare. The new policy replaces a host of separate Garda directives. It will be implemented by a newly established sexual crime management unit.
“This new unit each year will evaluate a number of investigations of child sexual abuse, child neglect and other sexual offences to ensure they are receiving appropriate attention and being brought to a prompt conclusion,” said Mr Murphy in a statement.
The policy was drawn up with reference to the recent reports on clerical child abuse and a report by the Rape Crisis Network on the experiences of victims of rape and sexual assault.
Under the new policy the sexual crime management unit will maintain a record of all complaints of clerical sexual abuse and will interact with contacts in the church agencies, which have a responsibility to report complaints. Protocols will be developed with the religious organisations relating to the reporting and exchange of information on incidents of sexual, physical and emotional abuse committed by their members.
The Garda recently set up a crime training facility, which was training specialists child interviewers and has dedicated child interview suites.