Child abuse - State must do more to keep children safe
The organisation has called for "a united front" to deal with the problem.
In the past four years there have been five cases involving children from age three to 15 in Counties Cork, Limerick and Clare. In three of those instances camcorders were used.
Each of these cases came to light during interviews with children who were already being treated for sexual abuse. In at least one instance a victim's images have appeared on the internet. The alleged abuses involved family members, neighbours and even a professional working with children, but there has been no prosecution in any of these cases.
The investigative authorities are using old-fashioned techniques in the age of the computer. There has been no concerted effort to locate or track internet images originating in this country.
The COPINE project at University College Cork, has been doing excellent work in the area of child abuse, but it is not informed about these allegations, so is not in a position to assist the authorities with evidence that might be found on the internet.
Locating such images would probably facilitate the authorities in bringing successful prosecutions.
The Government must provide the resources for a combined effort of various agencies to tackle this sordid area of Irish life.
In recent years we have been inundated with historical evidence of clerical and other sexual abuse going back over the decades. There is no rational reason to assume that such abuse has now terminated. We must not wait for decades until the children of today become adults before their complaints are taken seriously.
The investigative system is not child friendly. CARI must advise those making a complaint to report it to Social Services, or to the Garda Síochána. As a result complainants frequently feel that they are just being fobbed off on to somebody else.
Their sense of frustration is then compounded when there is little or no follow up.
Victims, or the responsible people representing them, are not given information about the progress of an investigation.
The Director of Public Prosecutions does not explain his reasons for not pursuing a case. The only explanation usually given is the stock excuse that there is "insufficient evidence" to pursue a prosecution.
Unfortunately there is also insufficient evidence of a proper determination on the part of the authorities to tackle the problem. This has historical ramifications both in the long-term social and financial costs that society has had to endure for ignoring so much child abuse.
Victims have often had their lives blighted by a sense of shame which is likely to be all the worse in the computer age when images are being transmitted around the globe on the internet.
We cannot resolve the worldwide problems of the exploitation of children, but we must demonstrate that everything possible is being done to help and protect those children who are being abused in our midst.
