Gardaí under scrutiny over ‘failure to act’ on child abuse
THE Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission has launched a fresh probe into how officers failed to investigate horrific child abuse at a midlands foster home for a decade.
The case – exposed by the Irish Mail on Sunday last month – involves a mother who was abused throughout her entire childhood by her father and then again at the foster home where she was sent by child protection authorities.
The victim, to whom we have given the pseudonym Saoirse, has battled for a decade after her initial complaint to gardaí was lost in mysterious circumstances.
Even though the case had been shelved – and was not being investigated by gardaí – Saoirse was led to believe for years that an active investigation was in train. In reality Saoirse’s case had been abandoned. Meanwhile, the HSE moved to quietly settle a High Court abuse case against the midlands foster home.
Last month child protection agency Tusla apologised to Saoirse and an internal review is seeking to establish how many other children may have been in danger at the Midlands foster home – and from other alleged abusers identified in Saoirse’s allegations.
When Saoirse was in care at the foster home, a dozen other children were also in full-time foster care and/or part-time respite care at the home. It is not known how many children may have gone through the home in the years it operated.
The results of Tusla’s review are expected by the end of next month.
And now the MoS can reveal that watchdog GSOC has just launched a fresh investigation under Section 95 of the Garda Síochána Act. Section 95 investigations are used by GSOC to investigate disciplinary matters involving gardaí.
A previous GSOC investigation into the case was inconclusive due to a lack of available evidence. But the emergence of previously lost case files – not available to the first investigation – means a fresh probe has now been ordered.
In the meantime, Garda management have already formally apologised to Saoirse for what they described as a ‘systems failure’ that saw her case mislaid for a decade after she first complained of abuse in 2009.
According to High Court files from the case settled by the HSE, Saoirse was ‘assaulted, battered, neglected and subjected to deliberate or reckless infliction of emotional suffering’ at the foster home.
Among other abuses, the court file states Saoirse was regularly beaten by her foster parents, was sexually abused by two third parties and was dragged back by the hair when she tried to run away.
A report prepared for the High Court by psychiatrist Professor Patricia Casey states: ‘[Saoirse] was clearly an intelligent but vulnerable child who was not protected as she should have been.
‘She was placed in an overcrowded and clearly dysfunctional environment in which emotional, physical and sexual abuse took place.’
Tusla has said it is ‘satisfied that the particular family where the service user was placed is no longer involved in fostering, and has not fostered for some time’. However, none of those named by Saoirse – five in all – appear to have ever been held to account. All are understood to be still alive.
Incredibly, the foster mother at the former home won an award in recent years for continuing voluntary work with children – even though the HSE had years previously removed children from her care.
It remains unexplained how the former foster mother was allowed to continue working with children since the role required Garda vetting.
Saoirse was ‘assaulted battered and neglected’