𝐈𝐧 𝐭𝐨𝐝𝐚𝐲’𝐬 𝐈𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐓𝐮𝐬𝐥𝐚 𝐬𝐞𝐞𝐤𝐬 𝐚 𝐇𝐢𝐠𝐡 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐭 𝐎𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐤 𝐮𝐩 𝐚 𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐦𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐢𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐦𝐞𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐞𝐝𝐨𝐩𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐬𝐞𝐞𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐬 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐚𝐢 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐡𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐳𝐞𝐫𝐨 According to our report in today’s Irish Times by Fiachra Gallagher, a 14 year old girl, described by Gardaí as being at “the highest level of vulnerability”, has been ordered into secure care by the High Court after repeated episodes of sexual exploitation. Mr Justice John Jordan told the court last week that the teenager was being “exploited to an extraordinary extent” and was in “significant harm’s way”. Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, had brought the case after the girl repeatedly absconded from emergency accommodation. A sworn statement presented in court detailed “stark” instances of sexual exploitation, including one occasion where she was found barefoot and distressed in the early hours of the morning, and another where she disclosed to a social worker that she had been abused by several men. Faced with this horrific evidence, the State’s response was not to bring those men to justice. It was not to prioritise the detection and prosecution of child sex offenders. Instead, the urgent application before the High Court was for an order to detain the child. The girl is to be locked away in a secure care facility while the men who preyed on her remain free to target other vulnerable children. This is not an isolated case but a recurring pattern. Again and again, when the system encounters children who have been abused or neglected, the intervention is to contain the child rather than pursue the perpetrators. Secure care is justified as “therapeutic” or “protective”, yet the effect is to criminalise trauma while giving impunity to those who commit crimes against children. Judge Jordan was clear that the girl has come from a deeply dysfunctional home, with parents facing significant difficulties. She has also experienced drug use, self harm and long term absence from education. These facts speak to systemic failure over many years. Yet the urgent focus of the State has been on removing her liberty, not removing rapists from the streets. There is something profoundly inverted in this logic. The victim is locked up. The predators roam free. Gardaí are granted powers to search for the girl and hand her back into Tusla’s custody, but no corresponding urgency appears to attach to the pursuit of those men who facilitated her absconding and abused her when she was alone and vulnerable. Ireland has, in recent decades, exposed and condemned the culture of silence and denial around institutional abuse. But the silence remains when it comes to confronting those who sexually exploit children today. By detaining victims rather than prosecuting perpetrators, the State perpetuates the very cycle of impunity it claims to have left behind. If this is truly the “highest level of vulnerability”, then the highest priority should be targeting and prosecuting the adults who abuse children. Until then, the message is clear: in Ireland, it is easier to lock up a child than it is to lock up a paedophile.

Posted by Fred Bassett