Wrong language, weak sentences, poor resources: victims and those who support them are frustrated with the criminal justice system’s response to child sexual abuse material. Caroline O’Doherty reports

Society must respond to risks of online child abuse, say groups.

Gardaí have been forced to widen their search for the mother of a baby girl whose body was found among waste on a sorting conveyor after an autopsy revealed that the baby was born some weeks earlier than initially thought.

Apologies by governments for historical child sexual abuse “ring hollow” when children continue to be abused by the system, a leading charity has said.

The country’s specialist charity for child sex abuse victims has seen a 43% rise in the number of assaults on children perpetrated by children.

One of the country’s main groups for helping victims of sexual abuse has called the lack of services available “a national scandal” as it faces the prospect of not being able to accept new clients for up to four months amid mounting waiting lists for services.

Children as young as two years old can be taught basic skills to help keep them safe from sexual predators, according to child protection groups.

All too often, parents in the past were lulled into a false sense of security that their children were occupied watching television, but it was largely controlled. Now children have the added distractions of video games or the internet, which is essentially unmonitored, because they can expose children to dangerous levels of explicit sex and violence.

More than a third of children sexually assaulted or raped are attacked by another minor, it has emerged.

A groundbreaking report on child rape and sexual abuse shows the average age of an offender is 26, over a third of abusers are children, and family members pose the greatest threat to children — not ‘stranger danger’.

More than 3,000 children who reported they were sexually abused last year cannot access therapy from the HSE — unless they live in Dublin or Limerick.

The HSE pays approximately €18m a year on legal representation in cases involving children, a sum its national director of children and family services has said may be unnecessary.

Children At Risk in Ireland (Cari), which treats victims of sexual abuse, has said it fears for the future of some services if it undergoes any further cuts to its funding.

The number of parents contacting the Children At Risk in Ireland (CARI) helpline with concerns about their young child's sexualised behaviour increased by 57% last year.

The number of parents contacting a therapy and counselling service due to their young child’s sexualised behaviour has jumped by over 70% in the past year.

The Children’s Minister Frances Fitzgerald recently welcomed Retail Ireland’s initiative to only sell age–appropriate garments for the under 12s. However, most parents are far more concerned with the content children are viewing online, despite parents’ best efforts.

Girls as young as 11 living in estates where gangs reign are being expected to take part in initiation ceremonies involving graphic sexual activity, according to a leading child abuse counselling service.

ONLY one in 80 perpetrators of child sexual abuse end up with a conviction, a leading survivors’ organisation has claimed.

TEENAGERS are being targeted and sexually abused the same way as adult women, according to a report.

DEFENCE solicitors in child abuse cases which go to court are increasingly looking for therapy notes in a bid to “get their client off the hook”, a children’s support group has said.

A LEADING child support group is calling for dedicated support for sexually-abused children after demand by young people for its therapy services increased by a quarter.

THE children of a man jailed for 14 years for the systematic sexual abuse of his son may sue the state over the Health Service Executive’s (HSE) failure to halt abuse carried out by the man and his wife.

THE increase in child rape cases reported to the gardaí last year is the “tip of the iceberg” in relation to the true scale of child sexual abuse, a leading children’s charity said yesterday.

VICTIMS of institutional child abuse yesterday led the chorus of condemnation and anger over the findings of the report by the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, on what was described as a “shameful day for Ireland”.

HARD-UP Hugh Hefner will be touched.

WE have let the Playboy bunny image come off the top shelf and into our children’s wardrobes.

Cormac O’Keeffe

The number of teenage rapes and gang rapes is an increasing cause of concern, a support group for victims of child abuse warned today.

A support group for victims of child sex abuse has expressed concern at the rate of abuse within families.

A GROWING number of unaccompanied young immigrants, who have been sexually abused in their homelands, are seeking help on arrival here.

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern paid an extraordinary personal tribute to British Prime Minister Tony Blair as both were awarded a major international peace prize yesterday.

Westlife star Bryan McFadden was named Celebrity Dad Of The Year today – and said he did not deserve it.

A CASH-STRAPPED national organisation providing therapy to sexually abused children may be forced to cut its services at a time when demand for them has never been greater.

DESPITE all the publicity about the incidence of child sexual abuse in Irish society, the problem appears to be getting worse, if the experience of an organisation working at the cliff face of the crisis is anything to go by.

AN alarming increase in reported child sexual abuse has pushed a leading child protection group into a cash crisis.

AN alarming rise in child sexual assaults for the first three months of this year is just “the tip of the iceberg” support group and counselling service Children At Risk in Ireland (CARI) said yesterday.

SEXUALLY abused children are having to wait up to a year to be clinically assessed by specialists, a leading child protection group said yesterday.

LESS than one in 50 child sexual abuse cases reported by the victim is false, but in cases detected by a third party, most children will try to deny their suffering.