Whistleblower’s fears for clients
CARMEL Mulpeter, left, originally went to work as a volunteer at CWCWE in late 2009 but later became an employee via a Community Service Programme (CSP) scheme funded by Pobal.
Her first assignment was to help with intellectually disabled clients at the charity’s Kilcannon nursery, just outside Enniscorthy, Co Wexford.
She encountered issues that she subsequently raised. Some were issues of culture and conditions in the charity.
But she also became aware of more serious concerns – including allegations of physical and possibly sexual abuse at CWCWE by other service users.
In 2010, she made her concerns known to management and an independent firm – Monalee Training and Consultancy – was commissioned to investigate.
The Monalee Report largely vindicated Mrs Mulpeter’s concerns and the issues were brought to the HSE’s attention.
The Monalee Report were provided with incident reports by management at CWCWE.
These reports – which had never been referred to any statutory authority – contained details of alleged sexual assaults on clients.
In particular, they detailed alleged assaults by one service user on four others. The Irish Mail on Sunday understands that the alleged perpetrator in this case remains at CWCWE.
There were also details of alleged abuse of a possibly criminal nature by another client who is no longer in its care.
After the Monalee Report, Mrs Mulpeter remained concerned. Her fears crystallised in 2012 when a victim of alleged sexual abuse at CWCWE was placed in a residential community home beside the person who had allegedly committed the abuse.
So in 2013, Mrs Mulpeter reached out through political connections – she once stood for Fine Gael in local elections – to Phil Hogan, who brought the matter to the attention of then Health Minister James Reilly.
This ultimately resulted in the HSE agreeing to investigate. Details of those investigations are only now emerging.
She reported her concerns to Pobal at the beginning of this year. In addition to launching a review of financial irregularities alleged by Mrs Mulpeter, Pobal referred concerns about alleged sexual abuse to gardaí.