3,500 crimes against children a year

MORE than 3,500 crimes against children on average are being reported to gardaí every year, an Irish Examiner investigation shows.

Less than a fifth of these are resulting in a court prosecution, and just one in ten of all cases has ended in a conviction to date.

These crimes only reflect the “tip of the iceberg”, with most crimes against children going unreported.

Child experts said the new figures underline, again, the need for a raft of constitutional, legal and financial reforms to properly protect the rights of children.

“The latest CSO crime figures demonstrate that the state is failing to protect children,” said Fine Gael spokesman on children Charlie Flanagan. “The horrific figure of an average of 3,500 recorded child victims of crime each year is likely to represent only the tip of the iceberg.”

The figures, supplied in raw data by the Central Statistics Office and analysed by the Irish Examiner, gives the most comprehensive picture to date of the number of child victims of crimes reported to gardaí.

The figures show that a fifth of all victims of robberies from the person and all minor assaults are children.

Covering 2003 to 2009, the statistics show that, on average, there were:

* 3,500 reported crimes against children each year (reaching a peak of 3,959 in 2008).

* 2,000 assaults on children per year, including 400 serious assaults.

* 170 sexual offences against children each year.

* 470 thefts and 300 robberies each year.

* 300 cases of abandoning a child or child neglect per year.

* Seven homicide victims each year, including nearly three murders.

Trends include sharp rises in certain offences, such as murder threats (up sevenfold), dangerous driving causing death (up fivefold), abandoning or neglect of a child (up 250%), menacing phone calls (up 180%), harassment (up 70%) and minor assaults (up 40%).

Only 18% of the 21,000 cases between 2003-2008 ended in court proceedings. Of these 21,000 cases, just 10% resulted in a conviction (half of all prosecutions). Some 4% of cases were pending.

Only a third of all sex offences resulted in a prosecution, with a fifth of all cases ending in a conviction. The lowest prosecution and conviction rates were for defilement (rape of a minor) and incest.

Only 7% of abandoning/neglect cases resulted in a prosecution (4% in conviction).

“These figures are really interesting, as I’ve never seen it worked out this way,” said Maria Corbett, policy director with Children’s Rights Alliance.

“It highlights the vulnerability of children, how often, in so many ways, they are victims. We must remember that for all these figures are individual children.

“We would be concerned that as country are we taking the necessary steps to prevent these offences as much as possible.”

Fergus Finlay of Barnardos said: “There are very alarming increases in some headings and a very alarming gap between recorded offences and convictions, particularly in relation to sexual crime. Much more attention needs to be focused on this issue.”

Mary Nicholson of the ISPPC said: “The prosecutions seem incredibly low but, unfortunately, it’s one of those things we see on an ongoing basis.”