HSE INQUIRY:THE HEALTH Service Executive is to publish the findings of an inquiry into the case of six children who spent 15 years being neglected and abused by their parents, following the sentencing yesterday of the father for the sexual assault of his son.
The HSE last year commissioned an independent investigation, under the chairmanship of Norah Gibbons of Barnardos, into the handling of the case by social services after the mother was convicted on charges relating to incest with another son and neglect of the couple’s children.
In a statement yesterday, the HSE said it had commissioned the inquiry “to ensure that any failure in the system is brought to light and can be learned from, and so that vulnerable children are better protected in future”.
“Cognisant that criminal proceedings were pending, it was not possible for the inquiry team to proceed to finality until the matter before the courts was resolved. This was necessary in the interests of fair procedures for all parties,” it said.
The completion, and subsequent publication, of the independent investigation will now take place in due course, the HSE said.
Geoffrey Shannon, family lawyer and special rapporteur on child protection, said the children in this case were “spectacularly failed” by the system.
Mr Shannon said there were a number of questions that needed to be addressed by the Gibbons inquiry, including whether the HSE failed to protect the children from neglect, mindful of the fact that “the State has a positive obligation to protect children from harmful treatment”.
It would appear the HSE had been involved in the case for 10 years before a care order was applied for, he said. “A key question is whether there were risk indicators that were not followed up on over the 10 years?”
Fergus Finlay, chief executive of Barnardos, said it seems there was a tremendous amount of involvement of the State in the case at a whole variety of levels.
“We need to know why that involvement was so ineffective, and why it was possible for abusers to keep doing the terrible things they did,” he said.
Fine Gael TD Alan Shatter said the continued “barbaric” abuse within the family over many years yet again depicted a “catastrophic failure” by the State’s child care and protection services.
He called on Minister of State for Children Barry Andrews to promptly publish the Gibbons report.
The Dublin Rape Crisis Centre paid tribute to the young man at the centre of the case and said he had shown remarkable bravery in withstanding the further trauma of being cross-examined in the witness box.
“By following through with the case against his father, he is to be commended for his bravery and thanked for his service to all of us as a society,” the centre’s chief executive Ellen O’Malley-Dunlop said.
She criticised Mr Justice Barry White’s decision to suspend the last 18 months of the father’s sentence because of his lack of previous convictions.
“Given the grievous nature of the crimes, this does not send out a good message to either victims or perpetrators.
“The man was found guilty. He showed no remorse. He should have to endure the full sentence,” she said.
Her view was echoed by the Rape Crisis Network of Ireland, which claimed that the failure to hand down a life sentence would considerably weaken “the State’s ability to monitor and limit this man’s risk to society for the rest of his life”.
