Counselling for victims of abuse an `emergency'

Down the hill from the tribunals at Dublin Castle yesterday, at the Franciscan Friary on Merchant's Quay, a few priests, psychologists and survivors gathered to launch a booklet of papers from a conference last April on sex abuse. A priest and two psychologists spoke before the discussion was opened to the floor and then a good-looking, well-built man in his 30s rose.

He said that when he was nine months old he was brought into a court and put in care in an orphanage in Kilkenny, run by the Sisters of Charity. He said he was treated lovingly and humanely there before the then Catholic bishop of Kilkenny, the late Bishop Birch, closed down the orphanage to make way for a home for the mentally handicapped. He was then moved to Artane.

"I can tell you something", he said. "I was beaten black and blue every day for the first year I was there. The bigger boys beat me first and when I complained to the Brothers, the Brothers beat me for complaining and then the bigger boys beat me again for complaining.

"And then in my second year I was there, one of the Brothers dragged me off to his bedroom and, pointing to the crucifix over his bed, he said he was doing this in the name of Christ. That was before he buggered me. He was frothing at the mouth.

"Some weeks later, when we were at Mass, we had to sit down for the sermon. The Brother who buggered me kept kneeling up behind me and while the priest was speaking from the altar he whispered into my ear: `Kelly, I am going to f***ing screw you tonight.' I fainted in the church and had to be brought to the infirmary. But no doctor was called. In fact no doctor was called for any of the time that I was in Artane, and that was because I was black and blue from the beatings I got.

"Then in 1969 I was sent to St Michael's in Cappoquin and the abuse continued there."

He went on to talk about how he had sought interviews with the Christian Brothers' leadership to tell what had happened to him while he had been in Artane but, he said, he was fobbed off. He said he was fobbed off, too, by Government agencies, but that the present Bishop of Waterford had met him for three hours.

He said there were no facilities for counselling in rural Ireland for sex abuse victims. He had made approaches to the State, the health board and church authorities about this, and nothing had happened. "This is an emergency," he said. "One of the fellows who was sexually abused in Cappoquinn committed suicide in the last fortnight. This is an emergency. We have fire brigades and ambulances for emergencies, we need emergency counselling now for the victims of child abuse.

"I am meeting 25 survivors from St Michael's, Cappoquin, in Dungarvan tomorrow night. We need counselling or there will be more suicides."

Others spoke of their anguish with how the Catholic Church authorities were handling their cases, how they affect to be distraught with the unfolding stories, but yet respond in a cold bureaucratic manner. One spoke of a church hearing on a sex-abuse allegation made by someone who has since committed suicide. The hearing is in secret, the family is told as little as possible and the process is dragging on interminably.

Earlier Marie Keenan, a psychotherapist and researcher at the Granada Institute, said that studies here and abroad had shown that the prevalence of child sex abuse was widespread. She said US studies had shown that one in four girls and one in six to eight boys can expect to be sexually molested in childhood. In addition, one in three women can expect to have sexually abusive behaviour directed towards them in adulthood.

Ms Keenan went on to say that further studies in the US had shown that 80-95 per cent of child sexual abuse is perpetrated by someone known to the victim; 50 per cent is perpetrated by a family member; 50 per cent is perpetrated by others: teachers, religious leaders, youth leaders etc; 95 per cent perpetrated by men.

Of the perpetrators most are heterosexual men, many have had dysfunctional childhoods and only a minority could be classified as "true" paedophiles.

In her paper to the conference last April, published in the booklet yesterday, Ms Keenan writes that many categories of sex offenders are treatable, while others are not. Those who are not are a minority of offenders.

However, the treatment facilities are hopelessly inadequate. There are hardly any community-based facilities for offenders and a mere 10 places for 280 sex offenders in prison. She claims that the legal system is inappropriate for dealing with the phenomenon of sex offending and the judiciary is largely untrained for dealing with sex abuse cases.

She quotes a judge of the Circuit Court as saying recently: "Modern thinking requires of him [the judge] that he impose a custodial sentence on the perpetrator in a child sexual abuse case for the healing of the victim." She says: "There is not a shred of empirical evidence to support his claim."

She says: "We must make it possible for any people who have offended to come out and admit to their offending and get help, rather than forcing them underground. The silence from Leinster House on these matters is deafening, save the odd bellow about `zero tolerance' and commitment to build and fill even more prisons. I seriously doubt if anyone in Government is thinking seriously about this situation, rather than reacting for perceived political gain." I wonder whom she has in mind?

She proposes that child poverty, child neglect and child homelessness be tackled in addition to physical and sexual abuse; that the primary school curriculum include programmes on maleness and male sexuality; that all parental beating of children be stopped; that a "Stop it Now!" help-line be established, encouraging those who have begun to abuse children, or might be worried that they could do so, to come forward and seek help.

But, of course, as with the drugs problem, this would take a little political courage - for instance, to acknowledge that most sex offenders can be treated and perhaps not all of them should be sent to jail on long sentences, or at all - and a commitment to making the necessary resources available.

But as with Portrane, Mountjoy, the homeless and the drugs crisis, budgetary considerations come into play. It would cost a few million to provide the treatment facilities, another £10 to £20 million to provide the counselling facilities for the survivors. And that kind of money is not readily available, you understand.

Not unless a mansion in the Phoenix Park comes on the market at a guide price of between £10 million and £15 million. Then there is no problem in lashing out £23 million. And all the political parties think it is a great idea.