Lack of COPINE funding ‘appalling’

THE lack of Government funding for an Irish organisation which safeguards children around the globe from paedophiles is “appalling”, an Opposition spokesperson said yesterday.

COPINE (Combating Paedophile Information Networks in Europe), has helped identify one-sixth of children whose abuse and rape is put on the internet to be exchanged among paedophiles.

Based in University College Cork, COPINE is reliant on EU funding in its fight against abusive images of children on the internet.

The EU funds all projects by the group, which applies both forensic and clinical psychology to the analysis of sexual exploitation of children on the internet. Each project, of no more than two years, requires a partner to qualify for the cash, which is one of the reasons why COPINE works so closely with law enforcement agencies around the world and the gardaí.

Because of a lack of core Irish funding, COPINE staff are on yearly contracts dependent on the EU-funded projects. When the funding runs out or the project ends, the researcher leaves and takes all their information with them, which is a major setback in the process of identifying victims.

Senator Kathleen O’Meara said it was appalling that the Government was failing to fund this highly successful project especially when such abuse of children was happening here. “Should we wait until an Irish child is hugely abused before the Government decides to provide funding? Or are we supposed to wait until child turns up dead or damaged here before we start funding it? This failure to provide funding is unacceptable.

“If you look at terrorism, we don’t wait until a bomb goes off before we start to monitor the people we know to be involved in this activity. It should be the same with this type of crime. We know this crime is committed around the world and that it is happening here. We all have a duty of care to children and that means the Government must look at every possible means of protection,” Ms O’Meara, the Labour Party’s spokesperson on children, said.

Minster for Children Brian Lenihan has provided COPINE with a €20,000 one-off grant towards to cost of hosting a conference on ‘Future directions in Psychological and Legal Issues of Internet Abuse Images’ which will be held at Jurys Hotel, Cork, from May 24-26. However, there are no plans to provide any funding for its core work. A spokesperson for the minister said he will meet with COPINE in May to discuss funding.

COPINE recently helped with the arrest of a foster father in what is believed to be one of the worst abuse cases in the US.

Ronald Harold Young, aged 41, was arrested at his home on the Key Peninsula, west of Tacoma, in Washington. It is believed that almost 700 abusive images of his six foster children, all boys aged five to seven, were posted on the web. The images from this collection were so sadistic that some of the paedophiles receiving the images asked him to tone down the level of abuse.