Tusla apologises to woman after social worker wrongly recorded she was victim of ‘exceptional’ child sex abuse

Tusla, the child and family agency, has apologised to a woman for inaccurately labelling her the victim of “exceptional” childhood sexual abuse during a child custody inquiry.

The woman had formally complained that the assertion, which was made in 2019, was not founded on evidence and caused her a great deal of stress and upset.

Following an internal review Tusla has conceded there is no evidence in the woman’s records to support such a statement.

She has received a formal apology and Tusla has committed to reminding staff of the requirement to maintain accurate records.

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Using the pseudonym Rose-Ann, the woman told The Irish Times in 2021 of being violently sexually attacked by her brother six years previously, an event which caused her huge psychological distress.

Following the attack, which a judge later referred to as “among the worst I’ve ever dealt with”, her weight dropped to six stone and she had trouble caring for her children.

Her brother, who pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual assault and attempted rape, received a 12-year prison term.

Two years after the attack, Tusla removed Rose-Ann’s four children into foster care due to concerns about neglect and abuse in the family home, which she shared with her then-partner.

Rose-Ann maintains Tusla should have done more to help her retain custody of her children and that at the time of their removal she had been doing a lot better.

“I went through something traumatic that the agency used against me,” she said.

Rose-Ann spent the next several years attempting to regain custody of her children and submitted numerous freedom of information requests to Tusla seeking information about her case.

Following one request, she received a report by a social worker stating that Rose-Ann’s behaviour was a result of “the exceptional sexual abuse she had experienced as a child”.

Further investigations from Rose-Ann uncovered a heavily redacted social work document dating back almost 30 years detailing an allegation made by a third party that she was the victim of child sexual abuse when she was three or four years old.

The documents say there was a single allegation of abuse but that this was retracted in its entirety a short time later. in retracting the allegation, the accuser told authorities “nothing happened”. The investigation and case file was closed as a result and no finding of abuse was made.

Rose-Ann told The Irish Times last week she believes the original allegation of child sexual abuse was against her late father, although he was not named in the unredacted parts of the report she received. She said she now wants to clear his name.

In the apology letter, dated September 2023, a senior Tusla official said the social worker who recorded that Rose-Ann was sexually abused was no longer employed with the agency “and hence it is not possible to discuss the complaint with them”.

The investigation concluded “there is no evidence on file to support the Social Worker’s recorded statement”.

The senior official wrote: “I can only formally apologise on behalf of Tusla ... for the inaccurate record and the upset and stress it has caused you.”