February 2, 2012
The conviction of Oliver O’Grady earlier this week for possession of images of child abuse highlights the difficulties we face in dealing with sex offenders. O’Grady served jail time in California for child abuse, then moved to Amsterdam and then came back to Dublin. He was living in a hostel where vulnerable families also lived. As he had no convictions in this country it is unlikely he was under any supervision by the Gardai.
Every year up to a hundred sex offenders are released from Irish prisons. Some of them will have completed a treatment programme while in custody, others will have refused to participate. Some will have been placed on the Sex Offenders Register on conviction, requiring them to report their whereabouts to the Gardai on release. Some will have been given a Supervision Order for a period of time after their release when they must work with the probation services and the Gardai.
There are many opinions about what should be done with sex offenders. This includes locking them up for life, introducing a Megan’s Law which would allow everyone to know the addresses of sex offenders living in the community or putting an electronic tag on all released offenders. At One in Four we take a different view. Fewer than 5% of sex offenders are ever convicted for their crimes. This means that a lot of dangerous people are operating freely in our families and communities and would never be subject to the measures above, even if they were introduced. How do we deal with them?
The One in Four Phoenix Programme provides an 18 month treatment programme for sex offenders. Most of the men on this programme have abused children within their own families but have never been convicted of an offence. Many of their victims do not want to see their fathers or brothers go to jail so refuse to make a statement to the Gardai. They just want the abuse to stop and to protect other children. We automatically refer all the sex offenders to the HSE child protection services and the focus becomes how to manage them safely in the community.
Not all sex offenders are the same and do not pose the same level of risk. We believe that good treatment programmes can work with most offenders as long as the family, the HSE, the Gardai and the treatment programme work together. This view is supported by international research in Canada, Australia and New Zealand. However, there is a small group of high risk offenders who will never change and who will always remain a danger to children. High-risk offenders should be given long sentences and life-time supervision orders. And the resources must be put in place to ensure that they can be rigorously monitored.
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January 30, 2012
The jailing today of former priest Oliver O’Grady for downloading images of child abuse onto his laptop highlights how difficult it is to police this aspect of child abuse. It appears that O’Grady was caught by accident after he left his laptop on a plane following a flight from Amsterdam to Dublin. When the laptop was examined images of children being abused were discovered. When Gardai
raided the room in the hostel where he lived they discovered thousands of other images. O’Grady had already served time in California for the sexual abuse of two children, and was deported back to Ireland on his release.
Using the term “child pornography” does not accurately capture what is at stake here. To create these images, real children are sexually abused. Real children are violated, raped, terrorised and traumatised. Their lives are blighted by the experience, and they must live in the knowledge that the images of their abuse will be eternally available on the internet. Police forces around the world seem to be helpless to stop the traffic in these images. While there have been some notable law enforcement successes, too many sex offenders operate without fear of detection in this virtual world. Meanwhile many good people view “child pornography” as somehow less serious than contact sexual abuse, forgetting the lives that are destroyed in the production of these vile images.
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January 20, 2012
New York-based artist Grace Brown has created the incredibly powerful Project Unbreakable to raise awareness of sexual abuse. Her work, which you can see here; http://projectunbreakable.tumblr.com/tagged/grace%27s-photography shows survivors of abuse holding up cards with the words of their abuser written on them.
We applaud Grace not only for having the courage to speak out about her own abuse, but also for giving other survivors a way of sharing their stories.
Here at One In Four we'd like to hear your thoughts on Project Unbreakable, and any ideas you may have on how we could provide survivors of sexual abuse in Ireland with a way of talking about their experience.
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January 18, 2012
Today’s Report of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice regarding the new Criminal Justice Bill, making it a crime to withhold information about crimes against children, is a welcome milestone on the road to making Ireland a safer place for children.
One in Four Executive Director Maeve Lewis says: “The members of the Committee are to be commended for the way in which they have grappled with the complex issue of mandatory reporting of crimes against children.They have clearly taken into account the submissions of experienced front-line organisations who work with children and with sexual violence.The Committee highlights the need to ensure that mandatory reporting does not deter victims of abuse from coming forward for help for fear of the consequences, and stresses the necessity of proper support for victims when making a report.”
Maeve Lewis ends: “We urge the Minister for Justice to give serious consideration to the Committee’s findings in the final drafting of the new Criminal Justice Bill.This will ensure that the legislation is robust and workable and will have a real impact in protecting Irish children from harm.”
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January 10, 2012
We are all saddened this morning by the untimely death of the journalist Mary Raftery and we extend our deepest sympathy to her family.
Through her documentaries and writing Mary highlighted the appalling treatment of vulnerable children and adults by both State and Catholic Church in modern Ireland. Without her work we may never have known of the role of the Catholic hierarchy in the systemic cover-up of the sexual abuse of children, or of the cruelty inflicted on generations of children in the care of the State by members of religious orders. Her recent series of documentaries of the psychiatric system is another example of her commitment to ensuring that gross abuses of power be revealed and that victims should be afforded a voice.
Mary worked tirelessly to ensure that those who experienced injustice and exclusion be remembered and honoured by society. She modelled for us all what it is possible to achieve with talent, courage and tenacity. The best memorial to this outstanding journalist would be to find within ourselves those same qualities of commitment and audacity and to follow Mary’s lead in working towards a society where all citizens are equally valued.
Maeve Lewis
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