Victim angry at foster home abuser’s ‘lenient’ jail sentence

A VICTIM of abuse in a foster home has told how she feels let down by the ‘leniency’ of her abuser’s sentence, saying she herself is ‘doing a prison sentence’.

Keith Burke, 29, of Addergoolemore, Dunmore, Co. Galway, was jailed for just six-and-a-half-years after being found guilty of raping three foster children – all girls under the age of ten – between 2003 and 2007.

Rachel Barry, who spoke publicly for the first time on RTÉ Investigates last night, slammed the sentence. The young woman’s criticism comes amid calls for an investigation into how the HSE handled initial reports of rape as it emerged they decided not to remove two other children from the foster home after ‘credible’ allegations were made.

Ms Barry, speaking about the sentence to RTÉ Investigates, said: ‘I said what’s the point, what was the point of me coming out and telling anyone because I’m suffering more than he has and for way longer, for nearly triple his sentence. And not just me, my family, the other victims, their families.’ She added: ‘I’m doing the prison sentence.’

RTÉ Investigates revealed the case of a foster home scandal in Co. Galway in April 2016 when a man had been charged with more than 70 counts of rape and buggery of three young foster girls.

Documents show two months after a disclosure in 2007 by Rachel about the abuse, the HSE decided two foster children – a boy and a girl – were not to be removed from the home. Four years later, in October 2011, ‘Amy’ came forward to say she too had been raped by Keith Burke. A new Garda investigation uncovered a third victim ‘Sarah’.

In a statement the HSE expressed a heartfelt apology, RTÉ reported.