The majority of cases of child sex abuse are not making it to court, the charity for victims of child sex abuse said today.
The agency’s annual report for 2004 also showed that although teens were more aware of their options for reporting abuse, the need for parental consent before under-18s could undergo counselling was proving a disincentive.
The failure to get allegations to court and for victims to get counselling is all the more worrying, according to Cari’s clinical director,Alan Corbet, because of the emerging trend in gang rapes and the rape of teens. Of 91 calls to the charity in 2004 regarding rape, almost two thirds related to gang rape.
Mr Corbett said the adversarial system in Irish courts does not favour younger people. "You need fairly water-tight evidence for the courts. But when the victims are below 18 - sometimes as young as four - it can be difficult for them to make statement that will hold up in a court of law. The system seems stacked against the child victim," Mr Corbett said.
The length of time it takes to get a case to court also creates problems ."The trauma of waiting is too difficult to bear for some children and their parents and so they don’t proceed," he said.
Mr Corbett also pointed to difficulties in getting counselling for under-18s, saying the legal requirement for parental consent meant some teens were unwilling to proceed because they were afraid of being found out in some other regard.
"Sometimes there may have been alcohol involved or the assault may have been by someone they know," Mr Corbett told ireland.com.
"We need as a country to really review the whole parental consent issue, we need to make sure there can be more teen friendly services available to this particular age group," he said.
The annual report revealed that an average of 74 clients were seen each month; 36 per cent of helpline calls dealt with children abused within the family and 28 per cent outside.
The largest proportion of callers to the helpline was women (42 per cent) and adult survivors (23 per cent) were the second largest cohort. The report, covering 2004, also found the majority of cases dealt with involved sexual abuse within the family.