In Ireland, we had "a very sorry history in how we treated children generally", Mr Pat Walsh of the Granada Institute in Dublin which treats child sex abusers, told an audience of priests yesterday. "A lot of reflection has to be done", he said, "on the use of institutions to deal with children, apart from the abuse that took place."
Mr Walsh was chairing a discussion on child sex abuse at the annual meeting of the National Conference of Priests of Ireland.
A mother on the panel, whose three daughters had been sexually abused by a family member, said she felt very strongly that the criminal justice system was "no place to deal with the issue".
She had found herself "treated as a statistic and not a human being", family relationships had been destroyed, and huge stress had been placed on her marriage in a situation where a chain of events had been set in train over which she had no control.
Children in such cases were treated as State witnesses, she said. Statements were taken when they were suffering post-traumatic stress. They were not prepared by lawyers before court hearings and they met the legal team from the DPP's office for the first time on the morning of the court action. When it came to giving video evidence, the child was taken by an official, alone, to another room. No family member was allowed to accompany the child.
Another matter which had to be taken into account was the fact that children could rarely be exact about times and dates, which were so crucial to the courts.
"Our experience was that our child was further abused by the legal system," she said. It had been very difficult and very traumatic for them as a family. "It was also very difficult for the perpetrator's family."
She felt "some sort of truth forum" would be preferable. "There are no winners and no losers in this sort of situation. It is about damage limitation."
Lucy, a victim of sexual abuse, said that the Catholic Church should "forget about using barristers and solicitors" when dealing with the problem. This approach was "alienating" everybody. "Victims just want acknowledgement," she said.
Jo, who had also been sexually abused, was critical of the "spin doctors of the church" continually devising ways of boosting and keeping intact the image of the church.
