Call for 24-hour treatment, support for sexually abused children

Galway is still the only city in the State to offer both 24-hour treatment and crisis support for children who have been sexually abused.

Such supports should be extended nationally, according to consultant paediatrician Dr Joanne Nelson, who is clinical director of the child and adolescent sexual assault treatment service in Galway.

Dr Nelson is a board member of the Manuela Riedo Foundation Ireland, named in memory of the Swiss teenager murdered in Galway in 2007, which on Monday announced its best fundraising year to date.

Vital support

That private funding - amounting to €53,500 in 2015 - has been vital in supporting rape crisis support services which were affected by HSE cutbacks, Dr Nelson said.

The foundation has now raised just short of €250,000, which is allocated to professional support organisations who must engage in a competitive tendering procedure.

Arlette Riedo, Manuela's mother and foundation patron, along with her husband Hans-Peter, said the couple were "delighted" to learn of the level of funding and paid tribute to all those who supported it.

“What started out as a tragedy for our family and the loss of our only child has turned into something beautiful and positive,” Ms Riedo said.

“We hope many young people continue to get the help they need and to have the future that Manuela will never have,” she said.

Galway has pioneered the co-location of sexual assault treatment services for children, adolescents and adults, and established a paediatric training position in forensic child sex abuse.

The Manuela Riedo Foundation and Children at Risk in Ireland (Cari) initiated a crisis worker programme last year to support this, providing advocacy for children and families in the aftermath of abuse, right up to and including court hearings.

The foundation said it allocated funds to relieve rape crisis waiting lists for counselling in Galway, Kerry and Tullamore, Co Offaly, and funded crisis training in Dundalk, Co Louth.

Two-day conference

The foundation also hosted a two-day conference for rape crisis centres as part of its plan to build a “nationwide, comprehensive, evidence-based education programme targeting 15- to 16-year-olds in the area of sexual violence prevention”.

The foundation's fundraising has relied on volunteers, including some 400 who took part in this year's Dingle marathon and half marathon in Co Kerry, its spokesman Shane Lennon noted, paying tribute to the efforts.

Gerald Barry (29), of Rosan Glas, Rahoon, Galway, received a mandatory life sentence in March 2009 for Ms Riedo's murder in October 2007.

In July 2009 he received two life sentences for attacking and raping a French woman, a crime which occurred seven weeks before he killed Ms Riedo.

He had previously been given five years for violent disorder arising from the death of Tipperary-man Colm Phelan, who was killed by Barry and others following an unprovoked attack in Eyre Square in July 1996.