Study: Children see gang figures as role models

A SENIOR Garda officer said yesterday that children in deprived areas of Limerick see local gang figures as people with status and glamour who fill a void in their lives.

Supt Frank O’Brien was speaking following a study on child crime in Limerick carried out by UCC sociologist Dr Niamh Hourigan.

The parish priest of Southill, who highlighted the reign of terror being waged by children as young as nine on elderly people in the Irish Examiner on March 31, said in recent weeks he had to get an elderly parishioner rehoused due to attacks on her home by out-of-control children.

Fr Pat Hogan: “If we didn’t get her out I would be doing a funeral, such was her state of distress and fear.”

Supt Frank O’Brien said he had been highlighting issues raised in Dr Hourigan’s report over a number of years. While he had not read the report, Supt O’Brien said: “I am not surprised at what I have heard in media reports, as we have been highlighting them in relation to children under the age of 10 who are being taken advantage of by criminal gangs. These children are deemed not to have any criminal culpability, due to their age. As well as being used by gangs to do their dirty work, these children also get into public order trouble and what could be termed routine antisocial, criminal activities.

“They are groomed by criminal gangs to carry drugs for them. In socially challenged parts of the city, gangs, to these children, can be the only group they look to as having status, people who are glamorised, people to imitate, in the absence of proper role models within the family.”

Supt O’Brien said that some of these children can equate violence they see in computer games with real life, due to their family background. “These computer games can put ideas inside their heads.”

Supt O’Brien said a problem was also being created by websites which normalise suicide with messages such as “you were brave to do this”.

Supt O’Brien said, while the gardaí have a role, the problems with young people in parts of Limerick must involve a major social dynamic which would need intensive resources.

Fr Hogan said: “Since I highlighted the problem in the Irish Examiner three months ago, the problem hasn’t gone away. In the past few weeks gangs of children gave an elderly woman a terrible time, attacking her house, which she had bought, banging at her doors and walls with all kinds of things, including sledge hammers. If we didn’t get her out, I would be doing a funeral. These children have no regard for law or authority and the gardaí do what they can, but these children will just laugh at the guards. There is a whole element of lawlessness.”

The head of the Limerick Regeneraton Agency, Brendan Kenny, said he too was not surprised at findings in Dr Hourigan’s study.

Mr Kenny said: “These problems are not widespread, but there are pockets in some areas. There is clear evidence that this type of stuff is going on, criminals taking advantage of children, and children in some areas being involved in serious antisocial behaviour.”

While some children were being taken advantage of by criminal gangs, Mr Kenny said some were not directed by anybody.

Mr Kenny said: “They do this as there is a culture there and they get a buzz from it. They don’t seem to be driven by anybody, but see it as normal behaviour. We have a bad problem in Southill.”

Tackling these issues, he said, was very much part of the regeneration agency’s masterplan.

Mr Kenny said they were giving support to sporting organisations as part of their objective to wean children away from crime and antisocial behaviour.