The closing of a legal loophole which could have seen child sex offenders walk free should kick-start the long-overdue reform of the distressing court process, say victims. Kate Holmquist reports
In an instant, the words ecstatic, thrilled and delighted replaced angrier words such as hurt, outrage, betrayal and grief as news filtered through to victims of sexual abuse that the Supreme Court appeal against the release of "Mr A" had been upheld, opening the way for his re-arrest.
The 2,000 or so who gathered in the sunshine in front of Leinster House with their white flowers must have felt their prayers had been answered. Elderly women with white roses from their own gardens, teddy bears and grandchildren in pushchairs had stood silently with tears in their eyes as the protest unfolded beneath a sign that said "Evil triumphs when good men do nothing".
"I have the feeling that they have their own stories that they had never told anyone," says Monica Rowe (45), who became the figurehead of yesterday's demonstration after speaking out on radio.
Tears of relief and joy overwhelmed sisters Bridgeen Doherty and Fionnuala Amrein, who suffered sexual abuse as young girls at the hands of their first cousin Michael O'Donnell in Dungloe, Co Donegal. On Monday, they were contacted by gardaí, who warned that O'Donnell (43), who was jailed last year, could be freed shortly. They barely slept all week. On Thursday, they decided to speak publicly about their trauma for the first time. Not even their neighbours knew before, despite living near O'Donnell.
The sisters are pleased that they chose to come out into the open about their trauma, even though the past week has been like "reliving the abuse all over again", they told The Irish Times.
If any good came out of the legal confusion of the past week, perhaps it is that the Doherty sisters and other victims showed children that it is okay to tell the truth.
"Abuse is widespread. It has happened to so many people, but most push it under the carpet and try to forget about it and get on with life. The whole legal system favours abusers and should be changed if more victims are to come forward," Bridgeen says.
Bridgeen, Fionnuala and the third sister, Jackie - charges relating to her alleged abuse by O'Donnell were dropped under judicial review - want to become involved in helping to make the courts system more supportive of victims, rather than causing them further trauma throughout the trial process.
Michael Lawlor, with a shaved head, tattoos and a nose that has been broken at least once, whispers to me of how being raped as a seven-year-old, and for several years after that, ruined his life and made him so angry that he had got a bad name with the Garda. After waiting four years for therapy, he's now in the midst of it and his hunger to find some hopeful change within himself is easy to read in his face. For him, the most important issue is that boys like him should be listened to in the future.
A mother and daughter who need to remain anonymous stand close to the centre of the crowd. The daughter is speechless with delight when The Irish Times gives her the news that the appeal has been upheld, meaning there is no longer a risk of her abuser, Simon Murphy, being released soon. The daughter was sexually abused hundreds of times between the ages of 12 and 16 by Murphy, from Ramsgrange, New Ross, Co Wexford. The gardaí informed her on Monday and she felt extremely angry all week, but seeing the crowd of supporters at the demonstration yesterday gave her "a sense of hope" that was fulfilled with the good news later that day.
"Today was fantastic, so cleansing for many people. We're not tainted anymore. It's okay to be a victim of sexual abuse," the daughter says. "I think now is not the time for blaming politicians, now is the time to move forward and get good legislation through and make sure this never happens again."
This week the public outpouring of emotion in reaction to the release by the High Court on Tuesday of a man who plied a 12-year-old girl with drink and had sex with her reflects the emotional agony victims and their parents feel every day. The 41-year-old "Mr A" was freed after the legislation that convicted him for having sex with the girl in 2003 was declared unconstitutional.
For Mr A's victim and her mother, identified as Jackie, it has been like experiencing the abuse all over again. Jackie told RTÉ Radio that her daughter was so shocked by the news of Mr A's release that she paled, became withdrawn and "just wanted to get out of it". "She felt as if her existence didn't matter. Her years of torment meant nothing," she said.
Adult victims of child sexual abuse felt traumatised all over again this week as they attempted to go about their daily lives at work, in the home and on the school run, with the uncertainty caused by Tuesday's ruling.
"It's very, very sick what's happening," one victim told The Irish Times. "You put your trust in the system and you get no support, there's no thought put into the victim as far as the court is concerned. It's such a farce. There's no real justice.
"This is about clever lawyers and people who can afford to pay them doing what they can to outwit the system. For the victim, what's happened this week is a violation all over again. It's a feeling of helplessness. Just as you're beginning to feel better, like you can leave it behind you and move on, it's chaos again."
Such a reaction is typical. "This happens every time there is publicity about a case. People heal, but the skin over a wound is more fragile and is easily opened up again," says Ellen O'Malley-Dunlop, chief executive of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre.
As the Government struggled to rescue itself by closing the legal loophole that freed Mr A, it has become increasingly clear that this latest legal and political fiasco is a symptom of a far wider problem.
"The new legislation will not be enough . . . I want to see the Government take this whole thing on board and get right to the very roots of the system's failure in relation to child sexual abuse," says Monica Rowe, organiser of yesterday's White Flowers demonstration in Dublin. Similar events were held in Limerick and Castlerea, Co Roscommon.
Rowe became a spokeswoman for the anxious public after she spoke passionately on RTÉ radio. With her husband, she owns a shop in Cabinteely, Co Dublin, and has a 13-year-old son. Her mother, a psychologist, and her late father, Myles O'Farrell, a journalist, taught her to stand up for what she believes in, Rowe says.
"The day before Mr A was released, I had conversations about the upcoming case with friends, and we all agreed that not in a million years would he get out. And then he did. Shock and horror hit the whole country. Friends of mine who are lawyers said that they saw it coming since the 1990 [ Law Reform Commission] report, so if [ Minister for Justice] Michael McDowell didn't see it, why?"
"The politicians think the public will jaw on the airwaves for about a week and then forget about and do nothing," says Rowe. "Over and over again we see this pattern of knee-jerk reactions by Government in reaction to public anger. Not this time. This is people power. I think the Irish are probably rather apathetic and it takes an awful lot before we say, 'Okay, that's enough'."
The outcry over the release of Mr A has brought to the surface many other problems concerning the court system, such as waiting times. Some children wait half their childhoods to go to court, spending sleepless nights before attending court only to arrive and find their cases cancelled.
One 11-year-old girl has been waiting to go to court since she was seven. "Why can't you just call the judge and ask him to deal with it?" she asked her mother recently.
Majella Ryan, a psychotherapist with Cari (Children at Risk in Ireland) comments: "The public is outraged. I see what goes on every day and I'm outraged. It's only dawning on me this week that the public are not aware of the problems and they are suddenly being slapped in the face by a system that does not protect people a lot of the time. People are extremely angry. We've had mothers calling us all week, wanting to do something about this. They're attitude is: 'This could be my child'."
She adds: "A lot of paedophiles and sex offenders - perhaps even most - are never prosecuted. This leaves children asking, 'Why wasn't I believed?' The children are believed. But the legal system is adversarial and weighted in favour of the perpetrator. In many cases the DPP drops the case with no explanation as to why. Or the families go to court and discover that even though the perpetrator has been convicted, he's given a suspended sentence or a too-lenient sentence."
The majority of child sex abuse cases presented to the DPP never make court, and when they do only 3.5 per cent of prosecutions end in convictions, and a mere 2.5 per cent in custodial sentences.
"I hate to say this but I would advise anyone not to bother. It's too painful," says one woman who went through the trauma of the courts, only to see the alleged abusers acquitted.
Children younger than seven are almost fair game to paedophiles, according to Ryan, because the DPP rarely takes cases involving under-sevens to court. The adversarial system that pits the word of the child against the word of the alleged offender is not child-friendly, and the testimony of under-sevens isn't accepted as evidence.
"Children have a sense of natural justice. Kids are very clear that they are telling the truth and think they should be believed. We have to explain to them that they are believed, but that it's difficult to prove," Ryan says.
Meanwhile, there are two-year waiting lists for therapy at Cari in Dublin and in the HSE. Cari must get 70 per cent of its budget from fund-raising drives.
The new legislation could exacerbate victims' anguish by forcing children under the age of 17 to face cross-examination about what they were wearing and how they behaved, as their alleged abusers attempt to prove that the abuse was "consensual" sex.
Many sex offenders and paedophiles see nothing wrong in what they have done. The long court battles mean that sex offenders on bail remain in the community posing a risk to children, because sex offenders tend to have more than one victim, Ryan says. During three- and four-year waits to reach court, sex offenders often react by stepping up their pattern of abuse as their anxiety levels rise.
"Very little is being done to prevent abuse by treating convicted abusers, who are often segregated with other sex offenders, allowing them to build their skills in avoiding detection," she warns.
The inaction has persisted because the Government has been in "huge and incredible denial", says O'Malley- Dunlop. "Twenty-five years ago rape 'didn't happen'. At a collective level there is some semblance of that attitude still around. . . I think that the White Flower demonstrations, for the first time since the marches in the late 1970s, is about the people saying, 'We're not taking any more of this unreal situation. We haven't been heard because the politicians are out of touch'."
The legal system needs educating, O'Malley-Dunlop adds. The cold, dispassionate language and tone that have typified legal contributions over the airwaves is typical of the attitude that victims face in the court system, "which is crueller than it needs to be", she says.
Victims tell of having to speak about the nightmare of their abuse again and again in the witness box in front of their abuser. They have their sanity questioned by psychiatrists for the defence. They may even find themselves and their families sharing the same bench with the accused and his family.
The Dublin Rape Crisis Centre is "delighted" with both the speed with which McDowell has brought through new legislation and with the age of consent being held at 17 for girls and raised to 17 for boys. But there will be problems, O'Malley-Dunlop predicts. For example, underage sex is not a crime for girls, due to McDowell's unwillingness to stigmatise single motherhood, but it is a crime for boys - which will discourage young fathers from taking responsibility since by doing so they will be confessing to a crime. There is also the issue of what "consent" means.
Kieran McGrath, childcare consultant, has done the legwork required to fine-tune the legislation, but his 2003 report on these matters was "broadly ignored, which is dreadful", O'Malley-Dunlop says.
Colm O'Gorman of One in Four says, "If there's a positive thing in this, it's that we are beginning to talk about it. The society and the State have failed to deal with the legal system, which is fundamentally flawed in how it deals with these issues. It goes beyond shoring up legislation. We need to deal with it now and those who can't do the job should move over and allow those who can to deal with it."
While the Government may be hoping that the week's drama will be forgotten now that the loophole has been closed, victims and their families are determined to keep momentum going in their campaign for reform of the court system in sex abuse cases. Special courts that would deal only with sex abuse cases would prevent the long delays that keep victims in limbo for years. Witness testimony by video link would free children from the trauma of repeatedly telling their stories. Keeping victims and their families informed of events in court, rather than keeping them in the dark, would help ease their anxiety. And the prompt provision of psychotherapy for all victims could alleviate psychological distress and long-term problems.
"Feeling isolated and alone is how we usually feel," says one victim. "Breaking the isolation by offering more support services would do so much to help us cope."
• For adult counselling, contact the Rape Crisis Centre at 1800-778888. For child and family counselling, Cari is at 1890-924567