CHILD abusers were not extraordinary, strange or vicious perverts, but very often led ordinary and even exemplary lives, the annual conference of the Irish Medical Organisation was told yesterday.
Dr Cormac McNamara, a former president of the IMO, said that abusers were likely to be well dressed, well paid and well educated. US studies, he added, indicated that up to 20 per cent of males had been abused at some time, and the perpetrators had been abused when young.
Opposing a suggestion that the IMO should adopt mandatory reporting in child abuse cases, Dr McNamara said that mandatory reporting had implications for doctor/patient confidentiality.
"We should not grasp at politically correct and simplistic solutions to save our hides," he said, and it would be more effective for the IMO to develop a system that would allow people who had suspicions to seek advice in confidence.
Another recent US study had shown that eight abusers who called a confidential help line had gone on to seek help. He said there was a misconception that child abusers were incurable. After treatment less than 10 per cent of abusers had reoffended within six to eight years. There was also a danger that mistakes could be made.
Dr Fenton Howell of the North Eastern Health Board said he favoured mandatory reporting by doctors because its acceptance would send out a clear message that the profession was putting children first. Sex abuse was a criminal matter which doctors could not ignore, he added.
Paedophilia seldom occurred just once, and doctors who tried to deal with cases themselves often found that they "had come unstuck", he said. Trained professionals were available to deal with child abuse cases and often the victims of child sex abuse were heard to say later that nobody had listened to them.
"What matters is that we put the children first. We have no difficulty reporting infectious diseases, and it is not a criminal, offence to have an infectious disease. We should not try to escape our professional responsibility in this matter," Dr Howell added.
Dr Sean O Conchubhair of Galway said that he was against mandatory reporting because two out every five cases reported in Ireland were not substantiated.
Dr Mary Twomey, who is attached to a child abuse assessment unit in Cork, said mandatory reporting was too simplistic. Mechanisms for reporting existed and the real issue was the lack of resources. The medical profession had failed to campaign for adequate funding for resources to deal with abused children.