O'Gorman: Expelling alleged sex abusers from community 'deeply disturbing'

Ireland's head of Amnesty International has described as "deeply troubling" claims that alleged sex abusers could be expelled from a community as punishment for their offences.

Colm O'Gorman was speaking amid the ongoing controversy surrounding claims from a County Louth man last week that he was raped by an IRA member in the 1990's, and had to face a 'kangaroo court' in 2002.

Paudie McGahon says his alleged attacker was ultimately sent to England as a punishment.

Mr O'Gorman called for the appropriate authorities to be the ones who investigate claims of abuse, and hit out at the practice of sending alleged abusers into exile.

He said: "That nobody else puts themselves in the middle of that process, and then anybody that has information about alleged abusers pass that information immediately to the authorities.

"And above all, you know the idea that we simply address these issues by expelling particular individuals from our own individual communities and exporting them to other places is deeply, deeply troubling."