‘Disclosure in abuse cases needs regulating’

THE Department of Justice, the Director of Public Prosecutions, the state solicitor and the Health Service Executive (HSE) must work together to address the “very serious” issue of disclosure of confidential records in sexual abuse prosecution cases.

Norah Gibbons of children’s charity Barnardos said it was vital that regulation and guidelines be drawn up around the way in which files are handed over to defence teams.

Ms Gibbons said it is a relatively new phenomenon and as there are no guidelines, confidential information may be handed over where it is not appropriate.

The issue was highlighted by child protection watchdog Geoffrey Shannon in his fourth annual report to the government.

Mr Shannon said Ireland urgently needs legislation around disclosure, because in the absence of any statutory rights for advocacy of a child complainant’s interests, the right to privacy is “seriously undermined”.

Documents from the country’s two sexual assault assessment units revealed that defence teams in sexual abuse prosecution cases frequently seek units’ assessment documents.

Ms Gibbons said people would call Barnardos for advice on whether they “had to” hand over specifics in the interest of disclosure.

She said: “Of course there needs to be disclosure, and a person has every right to defend themselves, but there has to be guidelines about what can be handed over and what should not be.

“The Department of Justice and Department of Children and all interested parties need to work very closely on this and come up with a solution.”

Ms Gibbons said a therapist or counsellor could write a report and never even know that it has been handed over to a court.

“There are requests coming for medical or therapeutic files and there is nothing in place to say what or how it should be handled. The concern would be that what is contained in a given report could end up working against the child somehow,” she said.

Protections in place in other jurisdictions are wide-ranging.

In Canada, for example, there is an in-camera hearing to decide whether the document should be produced to the judge.

If the judge does view the document, a decision will be made on whether the defence should see the document or whether conditions to protect the privacy of the complainant may be imposed.