Soham-style tragedy ‘could happen here’

IRISH children are vulnerable to a Soham-style tragedy because vetting procedures in our schools and sporting groups are grossly inadequate, the ISPCC warned last night.

In the wake of the murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children said vast numbers of staff and volunteers in sporting, cultural and community groups and some civil service jobs are not screened for their suitability to work with children.

There is no legal obligation on employers to carry out background checks and new legislation due later this year will actually make it illegal for employers to insist on checks as a condition of employment.

The ISPCC said vetting procedures in Ireland were grossly inadequate compared to the systems in place in Britain.

“Britain has comprehensive procedures and they are not foolproof as we have seen. We have a far looser system and that means there is a far greater vulnerability,” said director Paul Gilligan.

Under current practice, the only workers routinely put through background checks by the Garda Central Vetting Unit are staff employed by health boards and escorts on school transport for special needs children.

Garda clearance is not sought for teachers, classroom assistants and other school staff.

However, a Department of Education spokesman said discussions with teaching unions and school management on the issue will begin in the new school year.

Minister for Children Brian Lenihan last night said talks were also taking place with a view to extending the garda clearance system to people working in voluntary and community groups.

Meanwhile, organisations which have adopted the practice of asking paid and unpaid staff to submit themselves for garda clearance say the system is not thorough enough.

“There is no consistency in the system. Some of our people are working alongside health board staff but we can’t ask the gardaí to run checks for us and the health boards can,” said Gearóid Ó Maoilmhichíl, child protection co-ordinator with the National Youth Federation, which has 250 staff and 5,000 volunteers attached to youth services centres around the country.

“We get all our people to get garda clearance certificates themselves but that system is not tight enough. Who is to say if someone used to exist under a different name or has a record in another jurisdiction?”

The ISPCC is campaigning with its counterpart in the North for the sex offenders register to record offences committed either side of the border.

Mr Gilligan also called on the Government to follow the North’s example in setting up a pre-employment consultancy service to centralise employment records and keep track of workers in the child sector dismissed for inappropriate behaviour where no criminal prosecution followed.

Meanwhile, the parents of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman were told last night they will not be able to bury the girls for a number of weeks.

Post-mortem examinations failed to find the exact cause of death and further tests will be needed over the next few weeks.

The blow came as police went before magistrates in Cambridgeshire to seek permission to continue to question Ian Huntley, 28, and Maxine Carr, 25, about the killings.

They were granted a 36-hour extension to question the pair.