Amendments seek to allow identification of those convicted of killing children

Two politicians have prepared draft legislation to permit the identification of people accused and convicted of homicide offences against children.

The Court of Appeal ruled last Thursday the Children Act 2001, preventing the identification of a child where someone is charged with an offence against them, did not exclude a deceased child.

The ruling means a child killed by someone else cannot be identified once someone is charged, and the person accused of killing them cannot be identified if doing so would also identify the child.

Speaking in the Court of Appeal last week, Mr Justice George Birmingham said the language in the statute is "clear and unequivocal" and if change is required that is a matter for the Oireachtas.

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Independent senator Michael McDowell and Fianna Fáil TD Jim O'Callaghan have each published texts of proposed amendments to the current legislation.

Mr McDowell said his Bill will amend section 252 of the Children Act. “The Bill makes it clear that persons accused of homicide offences against children cannot hide behind the child’s privacy rights to conceal their own identity,” he added.

The Bill also allows a court to permit the identification of the accused or convicted person where the public interest justifies doing that in respect of other non-fatal offences.

Mr McDowell said protecting child victims may sometimes require anonymity for the perpetrator in offences such as femal genital mutilation, sexual assault, serious non-fatal injury and incest cases.

However, he said there is “clearly a balancing act” in those cases, between protecting the public and protecting the victim.

“The Bill allows the public interest to be taken into account in non-fatal cases,” he added.

Section 3 of the Bill will make the amendment retrospective to court proceedings for child homicide offences dealt with before the Bill is enacted.

Mr McDowell will move the Bill forward as soon as the Oireachtas reconvenes, and he said he expects the Government to enact it “as a matter of urgency”.

Meanwhile, Mr O’Callaghan, Fianna Fáil’s former justice spokesman, said his Bill, if enacted, will ensure “all adults charged with the murder or manslaughter of children can be identified”.

“If the law is not changed those adults cannot, in the majority of cases, be identified,” he said in a tweet.