A conference on child sexual abuse, sponsored by the National Conference of Priests in Ireland, heard addresses yesterday by both victims and experts in the field of sexual abuse.
Ms Olive Travers, clinical psychologist with the North Western Health Board, told the "Child Sex Abuse: The Irish Experience So Far and the Way Forward" conference in Athlone that only when society reached the "engagement stage" in dealing with sex abuse the provision of community-based treatment for low-risk sex offenders would be accepted as contributing to preventing sex abuse.
The consequence of the use of demonising defence systems by individuals, families, secular organisations and the church was "the lack of any model for society of appropriate response to the disclosure of abuse".
In the absence of strong pro-victim responses and clear and balanced information, the public response had been one of anger and desire for revenge, Ms Travers said. Victims and their needs and the need to protect other children had not been to the forefront in the response of organisations.
Earlier a victim, "Joe", spoke in detail about the sex abuse he suffered from the age of 12 by a close family friend. The abuse went on for four years. When it was investigated, he met a reaction of "How could this have happened?" as if he had been to blame. His trust in other people had been lost.
In open forum other victims recalled tales of abuse. One mother whose three daughters suffered abuse at the hands of a close relative said she met silence and flaws in the system. The current court adversarial system was not the place to address child sex abuse, she said.
Another victim, identified as "Lucy" recounted her horror when she read details of a local suicide as a newspaper headline "Local bishop wept" when the young man who had committed suicide had been abused by a priest, a priest whom she had told about her own sexual abuse.
"Michael" retold his "disastrous childhood" and life in various orphanages.
Ms Marie Keenan, a psychotherapist and researcher, pointed out the contrasting ideas of those who perpetrated child sexual abuse. Today they were seen as a possessor of a very sophisticated criminal mind. If that was the case, she said, it would entail constant garda surveillance on their houses.
It would prevent the anomaly of gardai protecting the offender, not the victim. She pointed out that punishment bore no relation to the victim's needs. A recent claim by a Central Criminal Court judge that a healing process would help a victim by imposing a custodial sentence on a sex offender, bore no evidence in reality. Like Ms Travers, she also highlighted the lack of mandatory treatment of sex offenders and pointed out the need for community-based treatment for victims.
Dealing with the legal aspect, Mr Thomas O'Malley, lecturer in law at NUI Galway, said public pressure had seen a classification approach being introduced to courts. Punishment that fit the "label" was seen as appropriate, not the individual case. He claimed the introduction of a sex offenders registration scheme would intensify this practice.
Although the media had previously acted as the voice for some victims, recent high-profile cases had increased the demon image of the child sex offender. Another speaker said prison was not the panacea for society's ills. Mr Daniel Scannell, governor of Castlerea prison, said that sexuality was a psychological need as much as food.
Mr Kieran McGrath, a social worker, in concluding the meeting, acknowledged that the meeting was organised by priests and not the church and that the meeting had acted like what he called a truth commission. There was an acknowledgment that the Catholic Church had been emotionally incompetent in dealing with this issue.
The conference was attended by victims, representatives of statutory bodies, Rape Crisis Centres, social workers and teachers.