The tale is as old as time and is every parent's nightmare. A little girl out playing just before tea-time is accosted by a man who promises sweets. She does not succumb to his lure, but within minutes, she is chased down one of Cork's busiest thoroughfares, dragged behind bushes and viciously raped. "What kind of society have we that a man can chase a terrified, screaming child down an open road like Dillon's Cross and not be stopped by passers-by?" asks Ms Mary Crilly, director of the Cork Rape Crisis Centre. Similar questions were asked in the James Bulger murder case.
The raped child is eight years old. The six-year-old sister who had been playing with her wandered off to meet their father without realising what was happening, according to Supt P.J. Brennan. Early reports indicate the child did not know her assailant.
"This rape is at the upper end of depravity," Supt Brennan said yesterday. "It is a most horrifying crime, and I say that after 35 years in the Garda.
"Because there was a downpour of rain at the time, passers-by may have assumed the little girl was running for shelter," he believes. The area where she was playing has a transient population. Mr Kieran McGrath, a senior social worker with expertise in victim and offender care, believes that the pre-pubertal girl may have been carefully selected. The rapist may have stalked her, or may have been seeking exactly that situation where a young child was vulnerable, lacking immediate adult supervision.
Had her younger sister been targeted, the girl could have run for help, and spoiled the rapist's intent.
"This is a case of domination and aggression, expressed as a sexual offence: intellectually, physically and emotionally, it's a lot easier to dominate an eight-year-old than an 18-year-old," he explains. "The reasons why he may have picked her instead of her sister are very basic. It all comes down to whether or not they could tell." Mr McGrath profiles the rapist as someone who has already demonstrated antisocial behaviour. He may well have problems with authority and may have already perpetrated smaller acts of abuse, stopping short of rape.
Although the case plays to parents' deepest horrors, rape by a stranger is rare. Children are at far greater risk of being abused within their own immediate or extended families.
"It is not a typical case," says Mr McGrath, "and panicked or hysterical reactions are inappropriate." Mr Cian O Tighearnaigh, chief executive of the ISPCC, argues that such a case attracts greater media attention than would other types of abuse precisely because it happens outside the family.
"Stranger danger is seen to represent a threat to the wider community," he believes, "but the abuser within the closed circle of the family represents a much more real and present danger." But he is concerned about the silent witness syndrome, whereby people are willing to tolerate seeing a child being chased, or dragged or slapped, without intervening. There is, he believes "an ambivalence about witnessing incidents of bullying or potential violence towards children".
The little girl was returned to her family home after medical treatment and interviews with gardai. "She's best off there," says Ms Crilly. "She needs to feel safe and secure, and it could be months before she is ready to talk about her fear and terror. But her family need support, and it is essential that their identity be protected."
If her identity is not protected, the girl and her family could be stigmatised for years to come. That may worsen the impact of the rape.
Ms Crilly believes that counselling and treatment services for abuse and assault victims in the Cork area are severely under-resourced, but a spokesperson for the Southern Health Board said that waiting lists had been substantially reduced.
In either case, this child and her family will now be a priority for the health board. Two social workers spent yesterday afternoon with them, along with a trained garda who has been assigned to the family.
Senior care workers in the Southern Health Board were last night considering how best to develop an individual approach for the little girl. "She has already been examined medically, and interviewed by gardai, so we want to be very sensitive to her needs, and having an army of counsellors descend on them might exacerbate the situation," said a spokesperson.
Experts say it is impossible to predict whether the rapist will strike again, but the community is now on full alert. "We are all stakeholders," says Mr O Tighearnaigh. "We all share responsibility when children can't stay safe."