HSE report says families of 28 victims of Donegal abuse will not be informed

The families of 28 intellectually disabled victims of sexual abuse at a Health Service Executive-run disability centre in Co Donegal will not be told about what happened, a new HSE report says.

The abuse, involving 11 perpetrators, was inflicted on 42 residents of the now-closed Seán O’Hare unit at St Joseph’s Hospital in Stranorlar between 1991 and 2002. Most residents were moved to the nearby Ard Greine Court complex in 2008 where one of the 11 perpetrators, known as “Brandon”, continued to abuse.

The report does not say whether any of the other 10 perpetrators was moved to Ard Greine Court.

Brandon, who was the subject of an investigation by the National Independent Review Panel (NIRP) completed last year, was found to have perpetrated upwards of 108 incidents of abuse on at least 18 victims between 2003 and 2016, “with the full knowledge” of staff and management.

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This latest report, known as a “validation report”, was completed in May and is a review of two previous file-reviews by two HSE Serious Incident Management Teams.

It says “incidents impacting 42 individuals were identified”. Some 20 of these have died, leaving 22 surviving victims who suffered 26 incidents. These incidents included “intrusive physical contact”, “attempted” physical contact, “interrupted” physical contact and “socially inappropriate sexual behaviour” including exhibitionism, masturbation in the presence of others, and being undressed in a communal area.

Families of the 20 now deceased victims will not be told of the abuse, while those of a further eight victims will not be told as the incidents “did not [reach the] threshold as an incident of abuse”, says the report.

The HSE is confident, it says, that not telling families of deceased victims “is morally and ethically correct”.

Reasons given

Among reasons given for telling families of still-living victims are: “time since the event occurred” and “will disclosure maintain the patient’s/relevant person’s trust in the service? “.

It says five families will be told of new incidents of abuse, including some who have already been told about abuse by Brandon, and other perpetrators.

Of the 26 incidents, it says 11 will be reported to the Garda, five already have been, eight do not need to be and two are being queried as to whether they need to be.

Independent TD Thomas Pringle, who first brought concerns about sexual abuse by Brandon to light in 2016 after being approached by a whistleblower, described the latest report as “mind-boggling”.

“It just raises more questions,” he said, including why Brandon was moved to the Seán O’Hare Unit in 1991, having been moved around three community houses in Dungloe, Letterkenny and Ramelton from 1988 until 1991. He had been in St Conal’s psychiatric hospital in Letterkenny from May 1960, when he was 15.

“Was he abusing before he arrived into the Seán O’Hare Unit? If he was, why wasn’t it dealt with before that?”

He asked whether Brandon was the only perpetrator moved to Ard Greine Court in 2008. “The only way now to restore trust in the HSE in Donegal is a public inquiry. The HSE has done this report and it’s hard to trust anything the HSE says at this stage. They won’t even tell all the families affected.”

Of the 11 perpetrators, five are deceased, including Brandon who died in 2020. The six surviving perpetrators are “alive and live in CHO1 [including County Donegal] disability services in three locations”, says the report.

In a statement, the HSE said it was “in the process of implementing” the report’s recommendations.

“The HSE is prioritising the engagement with individuals who are impacted by this report. In the interests of the anyone impacted, the HSE will ensure they are informed first and as such is not in a position to make any further statement on the report.”