A psychitherapist who treats priests and others imprisoned for child sex abuse has said that as a society we seem "more interested in venting anger and acting out revenge than in protecting children".
Ms Marie Keenan, who is also a lecturer at the department of social policy and social work in UCD told The Irish Times last night that "in a very unfocused way we target some men on release from prison with little other than continued public shaming and humiliation on offer".
She pointed out that 85 men have been released from Irish prisons to date this year after serving sentences for sexual offences. Since the 2001 Sexual Offenders Act, many of these men were now required to register their address and any change of address with the gardaí.
Many would also receive post-release supervision, she said. "We forget, however, about the perpetrators who have not been and never will be convicted in the criminal courts because of insufficient evidence, or lack of a complainant," she said. We also forget "about the men who want to stop abusing, but don't know where to go for help", she said.
If we truly wanted to protect children and create a safer society we would ensure that such men, on release from prison, received treatment in the community and that there was ongoing post-release supervision by a therapist with competence in the area of sexual offending.
We also would ensure such men were gainfully employed, definitely not with children, and that their families and immediate friends were aware of the men's history, she said. We would act as support as they tried to engage in a non-abusive way of living life. We would ensure that they had somewhere safe to live and help them give back something to the community, such as being on hand to answer the questions of those who were abused, if needed, Ms Keenan added.
We would learn from such men their "pathway into abusing so that we can learn about prevention. And we would resign from public humiliation and shaming," she said. "If we treated men coming out of prison in this way, we might just begin to invite out of the darkness those who are now abusing and be truly instrumental in preventing child abuse."
Ms Keenan said she would "truly welcome a public forum to debate how we, the adult members of this society, fail and continue to fail our country's children through neglect, inaction, and abuse.
"One only has to walk across the streets of Dublin any night of the week to witness innocence under cardboard."
Meanwhile, the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children has welcomed the establishment of a special Garda investigation team to investigate clerical child sex abuse in the Dublin archdiocese. However, it believed that, in addition to this investigation, "it is now imperative that the public is given unequivocal assurance by the Catholic Church in Ireland that children engaging in church activities with church personnel are safe".
The Irish Survivors of Child Abuse group, which represents victims abused in Church-run institutions, has called for an urgent meeting with the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, before there is any public announcement on the establishment of "any tribunal on clerical child abuse".
Its co-ordinator, Mr John Kelly, said SOCA wished to discuss the immediate setting-up of a police investigation into all clerical and religious child abuse committed within the State. He also confirmed it planned to take legal action to freeze all the assets of the Dublin archdiocese and "other religious organisations".
