THE DIRECTOR OF the Rape Crisis Network of Ireland, Dr Clíona Saidléar, has criticised Tusla over their failure to record and classify the number of child abuse allegations they find to be true or untrue.
In a response to a parliamentary question by Social Democrats TD Cian O’Callaghan, the child and family agency said that, while they collate data on the number of child sexual abuse allegations received by each of their 17 local area offices, they do not classify these into the categories of founded and unfounded.
According to Tusla’s own child abuse substantiation procedure, a founded allegation means that it has established, “on the balance of probabilities, that child abuse did occur”.
An unfounded allegation means that it has “not established, on the balance of probabilities, that child abuse has occurred”.
For years, survivors and victim’s rights campaigners, including the Rape Crisis Network of Ireland and O’Callaghan, have expressed concern about Tusla’s failure to identify the number of ‘founded’ and ‘unfounded’ child abuse allegations.
They felt this was hampering efforts to understand the scale of child abuse and the extent to which children’s voices are being heard.
Tusla did, however, provide a regional breakdown on the total number of child sexual abuse allegations received in recent years. The agency also said:
“The number of allegations that were referred to An Garda Síochána is not collated nationally.
“Garda notifications are carried out in all cases of abuse and where a crime is suspected as per the Tusla and An Garda Siochána joint working protocol.”
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O’Callaghan was critical of Tusla’s response. He said:
“International evidence shows that false allegations of abuse are rare.
“Tusla see fit to categorise their investigations into founded or unfounded, but not to keep or share any record of their findings.
“This information is key data that should be collated and made available, as transparency around this issue can only help to protect victims and survivors of abuse.”
Clíona Saidléar is also the chair of the Coalition on Children Living with Domestic Violence. She said that the lack of solid, robust data is harming efforts to protect children from abusers.
“We can expect that a significant proportion of family separation and child custody cases going through our family courts, involve the rape and sexual abuse of children by family members in the absence of a parallel criminal conviction.
“The Family Court Services process on average 11,600 cases involving guardianship, custody and access matters.
“Both the Child Care Law Reporting Project and the Legal Aid Board have tried to estimate how many of these involve child sexual violence.”
She said that the Rape Crisis Network Ireland (RCNI) believes “this figure should not be a matter of a guesstimate”.
Many child abuse allegations are heard in civil family courts, with only a tiny proportion of these also proceeding to criminal investigation.
The two processes often take place in parallel, and can involve traumatised, vulnerable families in crisis who face navigating a complex and re-traumatising bureaucratic system.
However, families can’t speak out about their experiences.
Saidléar said that abuse survivors risk breaching the law by speaking out about the experience of the family courts. This is because of the in-camera rule, whereby family law takes place in private and cannot be reported on where the report could identify the parties to the case.
Saidléar explained how the process works:
“If sexual violence is reported by a parent or teacher to Tusla, a child protection process is initiated. That may involve a welfare call by a social worker to see if a case should be opened. It may involve progressing the case to a specialist assessor, such as those working at Barnahaus.”
Barnahaus is a wrap-around service in the west of Ireland for children who may have experienced sexual abuse.
“After some back and forth, Tusla makes a decision on whether or not to take further action.” Saidléar said.
“If a crime is alleged, it should be referred to gardaí. They carry out an investigation and decide whether to send the file to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
“Appallingly few cases get to court.”
Saidléar also explained that “the criminal process and the child protection process work in parallel”.
This often involves Tusla using “outside assessors, who are private contractors, to provide them with assessments”.
“The case is either ‘founded’ or ‘unfounded’. And that language is heard as a case of truth or lies.”
“At the same time as all of this, the family may be going through divorce or separation. The Garda, Tusla and civil processes run concurrently, and they do talk to each other, but badly.”
The Department of Justice has commissioned research from UCC academics on the in-camera rule, which is expected to be completed in six months.
This is part of the reason that the number of convictions for child abuse is a fraction of the number of allegations made.
Saidléar said that only between 4-10% of cases of sexual violence against children result in a conviction. She added that data on the number of cases that Tusla pursues should be public.
Read more articles in this series >>
Are children being left in the hands of sexual abusers?
By Peter McGuire for Noteworthy
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