Grieving father tells of ‘ hurt and anger’ over gagging law
Minister says she plans to quickly change ruling
A FATHER whose three children were killed has expressed his ‘ hurt and anger’ over a court ruling that prohibits them from being named.
Last month, the Court of Appeal ruled that a dead child cannot be identified when someone is charged with killing them.
The ruling also means that those charged with murder or manslaughter of a child would remain anonymous, if naming them would identify the child.
Yesterday, Justice Minister Helen McEntee said that she wants to change the law ‘ as quickly as possible’ so children who have been murdered can be named by the media.
The grieving father, speaking to the Irish Daily Mail, said the names of his three children who were killed deserve to be shouted ‘ f rom the rooftops’ and he ‘ couldn’t describe the hurt’ caused by the court ruling.
‘I need to talk about [children’s names] and I need to celebrate their all-too-short lives,’ he said.
‘I’m only seeking that child victims be named so as to help us heal. Part of that healing is the promises I made to [them].’
The father added that he has hopes of continuing his children’s legacy by establishing an annual snowman colouring competition as well as a charity to support small clubs and societies, in their names. ‘I’m setting up a charity in [child’s name] which will support small clubs and societies. I could not do this without media support and if we could not name [ children’s names]. I never expect to heal but keeping these promises and celebrating them makes me a whole lot less sad.
‘I cannot describe the hurt and anger I felt at the Appeal Court decision,’ he said.
The Court of Appeal’s ruling also prevents adults who were abused as children from waiving their right to anonymity.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Today with Claire Byrne programme, Justice Minister McEntee said she had listened to a recent interview on the programme with a woman who had been raped as a child.
The woman was interviewed anonymously and said she had been deprived of the ability to make a choice about revealing her identity because of the ruling.
The Court of Appeal was ruling in an appeal by the media against restrictions imposed on the naming of a child and her mother. The woman was found not guilty by reason of insanity of killing her three-year-old daughter.
At the time, the Mail spoke to a mother whose two sons had been murdered, and who said she felt ‘gagged’ after the appeal court’s decision.
Minister McEntee said she had been approached by a number of people in the same position.
‘I have had people come to me since this ruling, where children have been murdered, where a parent wants to continue a l egacy, where they want to name their children and remember them.
‘I intend to move on this as soon as possible,’ she told Claire Byrne on RTÉ Radio 1.
‘I want to change this because we have seen, in such a short space of time, the amount of people that this is having a negative impact on really is huge, and I want to give back that option to those people who want to be able to say who they are, to encourage other people to come forward, or to remember their children, and to create some sort of legacy for them.’
She said she had also listened to an interview with a woman who had been raped as a child, and felt she had been deprived of making a choice about whether or not she could now be identified. ‘She was extremely brave to come on and to speak in the way she did,’ the minister said.
‘What struck me most is not that she necessarily wants to put her name out here, but that the choice has been taken away from her.’
The minister said the l aw, which had been intended to protect innocent children, was having the inadvertent effect of protecting the perpetrators of crime. They also had to remain shielded by anonymity, if naming them could reveal a child’s identity.
She said she was now working, with her department, to change t he l egislation ‘ as quickly as possible’.
The Court of Appeal’s decision had followed an application by several media organisations to allow them to identify a woman who killed her child.
Two High Court judges had agreed with the DPP that the victim should not be identified, based upon Section 252 of the Children Act 2001.
And Court of Appeal Judge George Birmingham said that the language of the 2001 Children Act was clear and unequivocal and must be obeyed.
‘I never expect to heal’