A homelessness charity has confirmed that a man who was yesterday sentenced to 16 years for multiple rape and false imprisonment began work with some of its most vulnerable clients at the time of the assault and remained an active employee until two months ago. Kitty Holland reports
The de Paul Trust expressed its concern yesterday that it had been unable to get a Garda clearance check on playwright and arts administrator Francis Condra (46) when he began work at its "wet shelter" in Dublin in November 2003.
The de Paul Trust is a charity that runs a number of homeless projects in Dublin.
Condra, who worked as a salaried project worker at the Aungier Street shelter for alcoholic homeless people until February, had previous convictions for burglary and false imprisonment.
He was sentenced yesterday for an assault which included cuts with a kitchen knife and multiple rape that took place over a five-hour period in November 2003.
During the trial Det Garda Séamus Nolan told the court that in 22 years in the force, he had never come across a sexual assault of such barbarity.
In 1998 Condra was sentenced to six years' imprisonment for robbing an 86-year-old woman of her life savings in 1996, and for tying up and pointing a gun at an 18-year-old woman in 1997 .
Eibhlinn Byrne, a spokeswoman for de Paul Trust, said yesterday: "The reality is we have no access to Garda checks. There are no Garda checks available to charities employing people working with adults. We have been pushing for this. I have called the Homeless Agency.
"The fact is there is no way of checking on the backgrounds of people we have working for us and this case just highlights this," she added.
Jo Ahern, deputy director of the Homeless Agency, said the organisation had met the Garda Vetting Unit last year and had sought access to Garda checks for people working with the homeless.
The vetting unit provides clearance checks on any potential employee of the Health Service Executive.
A spokesman for the Department of Justice confirmed that charities working with homeless adults did not have access to Garda clearance checks. However, he added that they would have.
In the Dáil last month Minister for Justice Michael McDowell said a strategy published in 2004 provided for the expansion of the Garda vetting service "to all organisations which recruit persons having substantial unsupervised access to children and vulnerable adults".
He said this would be implemented on a phased basis "within current resource capacities". But it is understood that priority will be given to vetting organisations working with children.