Conference on sex offenders begins

PRACTITIONERS working with sex offenders are hoping a major international conference running this week will highlight the dearth of treatment options for abusers in Ireland.

Some 400 delegates from around the world have been gathering at Dublin City University for the four-day event which offers 90 workshops, seminars and master classes with Irish and international experts.

Minister for Children Brian Lenihan is due to address the beginning of today’s sessions, which have been organised by the National Organisation for the Treatment of Abusers, which represents practitioners in Britain and Ireland.

NOTA’s Irish spokesman, Kieran McGrath, said the gathering represented a “shot in the arm” for professionals working in the area in Ireland, particularly as their numbers were limited to about 60.

“This is a very stigmatised area. This is not the sort of think you can talk about over the dinner table to friends. It’s a very isolating kind of work so it’s very encouraging for us to have so many people of such calibre coming here.

“The significance, apart from the potential for learning and the morale booster, is that it is also a chance for us to say to the politicians what are you doing to help us because it’s very difficult at the moment.”

Apart from a pioneering programme in the North West, community-based services for adult offenders are almost non-existent. That means most abusers - those who do not go through the criminal justice system - are prevented from getting help to stop their offending.

“The vast majority of sex offences - a minimum of 70% - are carried out by immediate or extended family members. Because of that, the prosecution rate is very low in Ireland.

“There are lots and lots of situations where abuse occurs in families and there is no question of it going to the courts because nobody is going to go to the gardaí about it.

“In these cases, there is no help available unless you have the money to pay for private services. There are private services and prisons and to a large measure nothing in between.”

Mr McGrath cited the example of one offender who travelled long distances to see a marital therapist with no expertise in treating sexual offending simply because the therapist was the only person he could find willing to try to help.

“We should not have that situation. Some of these guys are highly suicidal ... Treatment reduces the risk of reoffending so it’s not just pandering to offenders as it’s sometimes seen.”

Topics include co-operation between the Republic and Northern Ireland, internet offenders, intellectually disabled offenders and different treatment programmes around the world.