Child sex abuse victims need greater understanding and support from society so they do not have to wait until they are adults to seek help, according to a leading international campaigner against child abuse.
Dublin-born priest Father Shay Cullen, who is to be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for his work with the Preda Foundation in the Philippines, is visiting Sligo this weekend after meeting Sophia McColgan, whose story of abuse was one of the most shocking revealed in Ireland.
Father Cullen, who founded Preda in 1974 and led a successful campaign to close US military bases in the Philippines, describes as "a constant battle" efforts both in the courts and on the streets against international paedophile rings and sex tour operators. His work has resulted in numerous convictions, and Preda's campaigning has succeeded in changing the law in many other countries.
Last year Preda helped uncover a Norwegian prostitution ring operating in the Philippines.
The men involved, some of whom are still facing trial, included a professor, a dental surgeon and a school principal. Another high-profile case resulted in an Australian being jailed, and legal cases continue against sex tour operators from a number of countries.
Father Cullen spent 10 years campaigning for the closure of the US naval base in Olongapo city before finally succeeding in 1993. Children as young as nine were being "delivered" to the homes of servicemen, he says. One such nine-year-old girl was rescued by Preda.
A US undercover operation in 1988 found that children as young as four were being offered for sex to servicemen but, despite this, the US government took no action.
The site of the Olongapo base is now a special economic zone, where a number of large factories are located and thousands of people are "working with dignity", he says. Before, around 16,000 women were working in the sex industry, a figure that has been reduced to around 2,000.
Attention is now focused on getting the Filipino government to take more direct action against tour operators and mafia-style rings which control prostitution. "After the navy went, the international sex tour operators came in," Father Cullen says.
In exposing these people, Preda faces constant legal battles. Young women are still sold as brides, he says. "Women are paraded like vegetables in a market. They are up for sale."
Scottish MP Nigel Griffiths, who has worked with Father Cullen to get British laws changed so paedophiles can be prosecuted in Britain for abusing children abroad, is leading the campaign to have him nominated for a Nobel prize.
Preda runs a therapeutic centre for sexually abused children, staffed by a team of professional social workers and psychologists. The children are encouraged to release their pent-up pain, anger and frustration at having been abused.
"The children have a chance to cry out all the heartache," the priest says. "They are given support and they do recover. They feel empowered to want to get their abuser to court and that is part of the healing process."
Father Cullen, who has just finished a tour of Europe, is now campaigning for the establishment of an International Court of Children's Rights to bring to justice abusers who can't be tried in countries such as the Philippines or Thailand.
He met Sophia McColgan when she was in the Philippines in 1998 to receive the Junior Chamber Young Person of the World award. She was accompanied on that trip by Christina Farrington, who has organised Father Cullen's visit to Sligo. The women plan to return to the Philippines later this year to spend more time at the Preda centre.
Father Cullen says Sophia's story is told to the abused children in the centre. He was shocked that she was left to suffer abuse for so long. "But I was also incredibly impressed at her courage and her struggle for justice," he says.
Father Cullen will give a talk on his work at the Sligo Park Hotel on Sunday at 8 p.m. Everybody is welcome.