Sir, – Marie Keenan’s espousal of the undoubted virtues of restorative justice (Letters, November 23rd) omits the one crucial aspect that makes it unsuitable for the current situation in relation to sexual abuse in schools run by Catholic religious orders. The starting point for any restorative justice process is that the offender admits to the offence and takes responsibility for it.
If that does not happen, the process cannot proceed.
In the cases we are now considering, most of the alleged offenders never accepted such responsibility. Many claims were resolved without the admission of liability by the alleged offender.
Moreover, as most of the alleged offenders are dead the restorative justice process has been deprived of one of its key ingredients, namely an offender who accepts that what they did to the victim was wrong. – Yours, etc,
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CIARAN McCULLAGH,
Bishopstown,
Cork.