Gardaí reject group’s claims on combating paedophile rings

THE Garda Siochána has rejected claims by the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC) that international protocols between police forces must be improved if internet paedophile rings are to be wiped out.

In a statement calling for greater child protection, the ISPCC said Garda intelligence units, which deal with child abuse on the internet, need greater resources, as does the Garda Vetting Unit. They also called for improved treatment services for abused children and for treatment for sex offenders.

Superintendent Kevin Donohue of the Garda Press Office said there were great communication channels between the gardaí and Europol and Interpol, the European and international police liaison offices. “We have full-time representatives working at the Interpol and Europol offices in the Hague and the liaison system between Garda Headquarters and these representatives works well. It is a well functioning network where all relevant information goes to the various sections at the Hague if it is relevant to any particular work they are doing,” he said.

The national clinical director of the child abuse treatment charity CARI, Niall Muldoon, has called for a national counselling service for abused children to be established — similar to the adult service established in the wake of the Ferns Inquiry.

“It is very sad there isn’t such a service in place. There is certainly a need. We have services in the east, south and south-east and they are working to capacity. We could do much more elsewhere in the country but we don’t have the funding,” he said.

In its statement, the ISPCC reiterated its call to the Government to take steps to ensure children are adequately protected.

“The Government must realise the importance of strengthening international protocols between police forces, the need for the Garda Vetting Unit to be adequately resourced to meet the growing demands being placed on the unit and the need for adequate prevention, assessment and treatment services for children at risk or victims of sexual abuse,” a spokesman said.

The computers of five Irish people were removed from their homes this week in an investigation code named Operation Koala, on foot of suspicions they were part of an international paedophile ring. Customers of a website investigated by the operation viewed videos of children as young as nine being abused. One of the videos sold shows a father sexually abusing his daughters of nine and 11 years of age. Customers were invited to request other children wear suggestive lingerie, which at times were bought by the customers.

“This investigation makes it clear child pornography can also facilitate and reinforce the actual abuse of children. This international operation again highlights the horrific nature of the crime of possession and sharing of child pornographic images. Such images are evidence a child somewhere in the world is being abused,” the spokesman added.