Report due on study into social media complaints of alleged military sexual misconduct

A REPORT EXAMINING the social media gathered complaints of sexual abuse in the Irish Defence Forces will be published in the coming days.   

The report which comes ahead of an Independent Review Group (IRG) investigation into allegations of sexual abuse, harassment and bullying was compiled by a Senior Counsel.

It examined, The Journal has learned, a total of 36 reports all of which were compiled following a request on Facebook.

The report has said that the findings were only compiled from that social media gathered data set. 

The findings will soon be published by the Department of Defence (DOD) by Ruth Fitzgerald SC into allegations gathered by former Irish Defence Forces member Anthony O’Brien. Fitzgerald was appointed by then Minister Simon Coveney at the same time the IRG was formed.

The key findings in the report are that the prevalence of sexual abuse in the Irish Defence Forces is not higher than the general population.

The report also finds that DOD officials and the Ministers for Defence had acted appropriately when O’Brien presented his findings.  

O’Brien had made an appeal on social media for former and serving members of the Irish Defence Forces to come forward with allegations. 

It was this study that then saw members of the Women of Honour form their group which has since prompted a separate investigation known as the IRG.

Speaking to this website this evening O’Brien said: ”I wanted justice for these people, from my investigation, what I found, was only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the sexual abuse in the Defence Forces.”

 The Fitzgerald Report specifically looks at the allegations gathered by O’Brien and does not examine the Women of Honour incidents. 

Sources have said that the wider IRG report in the Irish Defence Forces handling of sexual abuse will have a strong criticism of the internal culture of the organisation and is expected to be published at the end of the month. 

The Fitzgerald report examined 36 separate allegations spread across decades between 1950 to 1990. 

The allegations breakdown, The Journal understands, are that there was one incident reported from the 1960s, eight in the 1970s, 11 in the 1980s and four in the 1990s. The claims gathered by O’Brien found that 19 females and 33 males identified themselves as victims. 

The terms of reference of the report looked at the action taken by the State on receipt of information from O’Brien between May 2020 and September 2021. At that time Leo Varadkar and Simon Coveney were the Ministers for Defence. 

The barrister was also asked to examine the prevalence of “inappropriate sexual behaviour” and to offer advice as to how allegations and correspondence would be dealt with in the future. 

Fitzgerald has said that officials, acting on behalf of the Minister for Defence and the military authorities following the disclosure of the information by O’Brien “proper in all circumstances”.

It found that the Minister’s effort to initiate a helpline for former members and that the manner in which the complaints were dealt with were in keeping with internal grievance and regulatory procedures. 

To determine the prevalence rate of sexual abuse in the Irish Defence Forces Ruth Fitzgerald examined research in the US and UK. The senior counsel looked to Britain and the US for research.

In her report the barrister said that she did not have expertise in analysing data but said she used studies from Ireland and abroad to make her determination. 

Sources said the report found that there were some problems with the research given it focused more at female victims and that the complainants in the O’Brien study were more men than women. 

Fitzgerald also looked at the SAVI report which was commissioned by the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre in 2002 which looked at the rate of sexual violence in Ireland at the time. 

The report found that the examination of the complaints gathered by O’Brien averaged a rate of .525% – Fitzgerald said in her report that this fell “far below” the average determined by the SAVI report and also in the US and UK militaries. 

Given the nature of how the data was collected the report is not a like-for-like comparison.

The source said that the report concluded that there is nothing more the Department of Defence to do but did recommend that any allegations, historic or current, should be made directly to An Garda Síochána. 

A spokesperson from Department of Defence said: “A report has been received from Senior Counsel concerning information provided by an individual. A copy of the report has been provided to the individual and he has been given an opportunity to provide comments on it. The report will be considered for publication shortly.”