IRA and Sinn Féin routinely covered up sexual abuse – independent report
CLAIMS that the IRA and Sinn Féin routinely covered up sexual abuse have been backed up by comments in a contemporaneous Independent Monitoring Commission report.
It comes as Sinn Féin continued to try to limit the damage the case of alleged IRA rape victim Mairia Cahill has caused the party.
The comments were made just two months after reporting of the alleged cover-up of a gang rape by IRA members because of the perpetrators’ connections to the Provos and the controversial Community Restorative Justice scheme in late 2005.
The report by the commission stated: ‘There have been some instances of people known for their involvement in community restorative justice schemes… who have tried to exert improper pressure on individuals, whether victims, alleged offenders, or members of their families. Those who have exerted this pressure are sometimes also known for paramilitary connections.’
It added that the ‘type and seriousness of some of the offences’ fall well outside the scope of ordinary restorative justice schemes.
‘As a matter of general principle, for example, violent offences against the person and sexual offences are not appropriate for restorative justice.’
The report was published shortly after a newspaper report claimed IRA members cleaned up the crime scene and attempted to prevent the rape victim reporting it to the police. One of the two alleged perpetrators – who have both since died – was the son of a leading member of the IRA.
Speaking this week Eileen Calder, a rape counsellor who has worked with Ms Cahill, said the family of the victim in the gang rape came to her for help and she spoke about the case on BBC’s Newsnight.
She said: ‘I referred to the CRJ and the IRA and they didn’t like it at all. I got a call from Sinn Féin offices demanding that we met them that day. [The caller] was not a happy man. He totally denied it of course.
‘They weren’t trying to deal with this case in a helpful way. They were trying to destroy the evidence.’