How order ignored its own guidelines on abuse

CONFIDENTIAL files obtained by the Irish Mail on Sunday reveal how the St John of God order responded internally to a growing awareness of the issue of child abuse from the 1980s onwards.

When the first complaint about Brother Aidan Clohessy was received in 1985, the order, like many religious groups, had no formal child protection policy.

But after that complaint – and in the wake of the 1988 Childcare Bill being formulated – the order set up an internal committee to draft procedures for the investigation and management of abuse claims.

The MoS has seen minutes from the committee’s meetings showing that ‘the situation’ at St Augustine’s was discussed and that Brother Aidan contributed. The legal implications for the order were ‘of paramount importance’, the minutes noted.

In 1991 the committee, under the chairmanship of then HR director (later CEO) John Pepper, drew up the order’s first guidelines. Section 4.4 of the code stated that an alleged abuser should be suspended or assigned duties that ‘remove him from other children or clients’ pending an investigation.

These guidelines were reviewed in 1993 – the year Brother Aidan was sent to Malawi – and new guidelines were introduced in 1995. They did not deviate substantially from the initial rules.

Meanwhile, in an apparent breach of the guidelines, Brother Aidan was in Malawi with no apparent restrictions on his access to children.

By 1999, as further claims mounted about Brother Aidan, Mr Pepper’s group published a new set of guidelines, noting that ‘those in the order’s services are in a particularly vulnerable position and are dependent on order personnel to provide the highest quality care’.

Towards Healing provides free therapeutic services for victims of clerical abuse. Tel: 1800 303 416.