Gaps in information hampers dealing with child safety claims

The National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland has warned against complacency when it comes to child safety following a slight increase in the number of allegations notified to it.

In its latest annual report the NBSCCCI said it received 143 allegations last year, up from 135 in the 2017/18 period. However, it said there was an overall decrease of 18.5% in allegations related to the sexual abuse of children, from 108 in the previous year to 88 in the year being reported on.

Of the 143 allegations notified, 82 (57%) related to diocesan clergy, and 61 (43%) related to members of religious congregations, including three from female congregations.

Of the 143 notifications, 88 were of the sexual abuse of a child, equating to 59% of all notifications. In 35 notifications (24%), the type of abuse was not specified by the Church authority while in 17 notifications (12%), physical abuse of a child was alleged.

However, in the report the national board said there were sometimes issues over incomplete information leading to gaps in the data being reported, in addition to some difficulties created by the implementation of the Data Protection Acts 2018.

“Notifications that do not identify the person against whom an allegation has been made result in the National Office being unable to establish whether this person has previously been notified,” it said.

The absence of this key identifying information inevitably weakens the allegations database and unfortunately introduces the risk of double counting. There is no way of establishing the number of persons alleged to have been abused by each cleric or religious.

“The current status of the person of concern has also not been notified in 21 cases (15.5%).”

It also said the National Office was notified of three concerns that arose during 2018/19 “which were categorised as possible boundary violations; one of these related to physical abuse, and another to possible sexual abuse”.

“The National Board considers this to be a worrying situation and a strong reminder to everyone of the need for vigilance and strict adherence to the child safeguarding standards.

“Each year we caution against complacency. These three situations are another warning that there are still steps to be taken to protect children from harm in the Church.”

As for spikes in notifications through the year the board said the Pope’s visit was the likely trigger for a rise in allegations referred in the autumn.

It is probable that the increase in notifications following the Pope’s visit — 9 in August, 18 in September, 18 in October and 18 again in November — was the result of people being motivated to make reports to Church authorities by the increased awareness of clerical child abuse.

The report also noted the 18 requests for advice from national office staff on individual cases during the period under review, down from 27 in the previous year, and an overall figure of 8,588 for training.

Teresa Devlin, chief executive, in her foreword said: “There have been moments of challenge, for example during the World Meeting of Families when there was an increased contact with complainants who voiced their concerns that the responses they were receiving from the Church were inadequate; while other complainants, distressed by events, had a resurgence of heartache and pain and wanted to raise their voices.”