PAEDOPHILES’ RELATIVES WARN OF THE DANGERS CHILDREN FACE
FOUR FAMILIES who have had relatives arrested for viewing child abuse images have warned parents of the dangers of smartphones for young people.
In a joint letter to RTÉ’s Liveline, the ‘heartbroken’ families described how their lives were ‘torn apart’ when gardaí raided their homes and discovered that men living in the households were accessing images of young people being abused.
They said that they wanted to remind parents of children with smartphones of the risks attached to young people sending each other explicit images of themselves.
‘In addition to our story, we would like to highlight to the listeners who may have children with smartphones: in today’s age of teenagers, it is commonplace for young people to swap naked pictures between themselves,’ they wrote,
‘Greater awareness to young people and parents that young people with naked pictures of under-17year-olds are in possession of child pornography, and if they send it to a friend, it’s a distribution charge added to that.
‘Child protection is struggling to keep up with technology and we need to do everything we can to educate and protect the children/ young people of this country.’
The families, who got in touch with each other through the One In Four charity, which supports those affected by child sex abuse, said that their households descended into ‘hell and disbelief’ when gardaí raided their homes.
‘We collectively feared that our offending family members would be found dead after taking their own lives,’ they wrote.
‘Families torn apart, in disbelief, experiencing hatred for someone they loved just the days and hours before that knock on the door from the gardaí.
‘We grieved for the person that we once knew; now we had what felt like a stranger in our home.’
They said that it took 18 months of group psychotherapy for them to accept that they are ‘innocent secondary victims of someone else’s abusive behaviour’.
The families’ homes were all raided within a period of five months, and all of the arrested relatives are now at different stages of the court system, with one of them currently serving a prison sentence.
Describing their lives as ‘full of shame and fear’, they said they live with the worry that their homes will be targeted by vigilante groups.
They said they would ‘plead with the public to consider instead of inciting hate, try and understand families trying to ensure this never happens again by supporting the person in treatment and committing to a life of supervision of a family member to protect children, not hurt them.’
‘Lives are full of shame and fear’