Teenage girls in the care of the State are being targeted and sexually exploited by co-ordinated “gangs” of predatory men, according to a new study which calls for an “immediate investigation” into the problem.
The research details cases of girls being taken from residential care homes by taxis and brought to hotels, where they were then sexually exploited and abused, often after being supplied with drugs.
The study by University College Dublin (UCD) school of social policy, published on Thursday, is based on interviews with staff and organisations working with children in care.
It found multiple cases where girls in the care of Tusla, the child and family agency, were “being coerced or enticed to provide sex acts to multiple men in exchange for a variety of goods”.
The stark findings prompted the researchers to call for an “immediate investigation” into the organised exploitation, by the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa), which inspects Tusla services.
The researchers said they had “grave concern” for the safety of vulnerable young people in State care. In one case a 16-year-old girl was being exploited by a group of men, who would pick her up from her residential care home “practically every night of the week”, later paying her with new clothes or jewellery.
There had been an abuse “ring” of some kind targeting a group of girls living in another care home, which one professional said they believed was “only the tip of the iceberg”.
Girls as young as 12 were being exploited by older men they viewed as their boyfriends, who were coercing them into sexual acts with other men, the study found.
Most of the 21 staff interviewed for the study had a “strong impression” the exploitation was being carried out by “co-ordinated networks, or gangs, of predatory men”.
In response to the findings, Tusla accepted at times it had failed to keep children safe, in part “because of a lack of residential places available” to move a child elsewhere.
Dr Mary Canning, co-author of the study, described the findings as “harrowing” and “hugely disturbing”.
In one case a boy with a learning difficulty being targeted by older men was left in the “deeply exploitative situation”, due to a failure by some staff to recognise the grooming.
In another case, staff in a residential care home described being “powerless” to stop two girls leaving to meet an older man, who was exploiting them.
There was a perception some gardaí were “tired” of dealing with young people frequently reported missing from care homes, who were viewed as “problematic”, but in fact were at high risk of exploitation.
The Garda National Protective Services Bureau accepted there was a “limited understanding” by frontline gardaí of the complex nature of child exploitation, which was “unacceptable” and needed to be addressed by training.
The study said it was hard not to draw “parallels” with major child sex abuse and exploitation scandals previously uncovered in Rochdale and Rotherham in England.
While there are about 5,600 children in State care, only about 400 live in group care homes run by either Tusla or contracted providers.
The study noted its findings supported previous reporting by The Irish Times, which late last year revealed authorities were investigating an alleged abuse ring targeting girls in State care.
In that case several teenage girls were being groomed and taken to Dublin city hotel rooms, where they were given alcohol and drugs, before allegedly being sexually abused by a group of men.
Professionals interviewed for the study reported that some hoteliers seemed increasingly concerned about exploitation of young people in their hotel rooms. Hotel staff appeared to be hesitant to report concerns to gardaí, for fear it would damage the hotel’s reputation, the study said.
