Radio Scope: Woman's Hour - Old age, vulnerability and sexual violence, BBC Radio 4, Thursday, November 2nd
There is always a new twist to human depravity. The latest was mentioned on Woman's Hour on BBC Radio Four by Dr Helen Jones, principal lecturer in criminology at Manchester Metropolitan University.
Talking about the sexual abuse of elderly people, she said paedophiles had been known to recommend on the internet that abuse of an elderly person may make a good substitute for the abuse of a child.
It makes sense, she said, if you look on sexual abuse as a matter of power and control. The person who is dependent, with no one to listen to them, provides the means whereby an abuser gets to exercise that power and control - whether that victim be a child or a frail, elderly person.
Who is the sexual abuser of an elderly person most likely to be? "Mr Average," said Dr Cath White, clinical director of St Mary's Sexual Assault Referral Centre, Manchester. They are the sons, the sons-in-law, the husbands, the neighbours, the carers, she said. All the victims she has met are female and all the abusers male.
The frail elderly woman can suffer more serious long-term physical injury from a rape than a younger woman, Dr Jones said. Sometimes the injuries are enough to kill. Often there is a sadistic element. Experts suggest that about 3 per cent of all offences against the elderly involve sexual abuse. The true figure may be higher, Dr Jones warned. The incidence of sexual abuse is measured mainly by police reports in Britain. But if the abuser is a person on whom you depend emotionally, physically and financially, how can you make a report to the police? Dr White suggested that hospitals need staff specially trained in helping elderly victims.
We have heard little about sexual abuse of old people in Ireland. We have heard plenty about neglect and mistreatment amounting to physical abuse. We need not be surprised that, in some cases, physical abuse takes the form of sexual abuse. While the problem has not been highlighted here, we can be sure a case of sexual abuse of an older person is on the way.
•For more information, see www.elderabuse.org.uk, the website of Action on Elder Abuse which has a Republic of Ireland helpline at 1800 940 010.
Review by counsellor Padraig O'Morain