Gardaí reveal plan for policy on sex crime investigation

THE gardaí have revealed plans for a Sexual Crime Management Unit as part of a new policy on investigating sex crimes, including the abuse of children.

The policy replaces a number of older directives, including PULSE recording procedures when Health Service Executive intervention is required for children. The Sexual Crime Management Unit will also assume responsibility for the investigation of clerical child sex abuse.

The unit, which will operate within the Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Investigation Unit, will also conduct evaluations of a number of sexual crime investigations each year to ensure the quality of investigations is satisfactory.

The policy is divided into three sections: Investigation of Sexual Crime, Crimes against Children, and Child Welfare.

The policy was welcomed by the executive director of One In Four, Maeve Lewis. She said it placed the victim at the centre of any investigation and that the training which will be provided at every level in the force would also prove valuable.

Ms Lewis also said the unit should prove effective at ensuring cases are properly investigated, and also at probing cases of clerical sex abuse, particularly given elements of collusion with the Church in past sex scandals.

The Sexual Crime Management Unit was put together by a group chaired by Deputy Commissioner in Charge of Operations Martin Callinan and received input from senior gardaí, including the head of the Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Unit, Detective Superintendent John McCann.

The comprehensive policy unveiled yesterday also outlines how “the interviewing of child victims of crime will at all times, take precedence over other interviews” and that the anonymity of the specific location of each interview suite be preserved in order to avoid a “‘walk of shame’ scenario”, where victims of sexual crimes are forced to walk in front of strangers who can surmise as to their circumstances.