Most children who are sexually abused are the victim of a neighbour or family friend, a conference on child sexual abuse was told yesterday. Children coming to the attention of agencies for the sexually abused are younger and younger, yet few courts will take evidence from children under seven, the conference heard.
Dr Alice Swann, Child Protection Consultancy and Training, Belfast, was speaking at the conference in Dublin organised by the Children At Risk in Ireland Foundation (CARI). It was attended by social workers, child support agencies, therapists, psychologists, gardai, health board workers, the ISPCC and organisations such as Victim Support and Women's Aid.
The conference speakers highlighted the inadequacy of current services for children and families affected by sexual abuse.
Dr Swann took a sample of 595 children who were on the referred list. She said that one-third were male but she had a sense that as many boys were being abused as girls.
Children coming to their notice were younger and younger. There were a lot of implications there, especially for the courts. Very few courts would take evidence from children under seven and yet they had children being referred as young as six and under.
However, more and more were now coming forward. Most children who were abused were the victims of a neighbour or family friend. Perhaps surprisingly, 6 per cent were directly sexually abused by their mothers, and 9 per cent by a female.
The age of the perpetrators was generally under 19, some under 13. The abuser was not the traditional image of the dirty old man in a raincoat abusing them in the park, it was someone they knew who was young, Dr Swann said.
The impact on the child included feelings of confusion, guilt, shame, low self-esteem, sadness, mistrust, anger, anxiety and fear.
She said sex abuse was a health, education and legal issue and a mental health problem. No one agency could meet the needs of the abused child. The tasks were prevention, protection, investigation and treatment, which were complex issues.
Ms Eileen Prendiville, therapist with the CARI Foundation, Limerick, said it was important to ensure that the public had an awareness of appropriate ways to respond to a child's disclosure, that adults knew how to report and to whom, and that families had support and knew how to avail of it.
"We now know that child abuse occurs in all areas, within all income groups, and that any child can be at risk. Boys and girls of all ages can experience sexual abuse, and they can never be held responsible for abuse.
"Responsibility for sexual abuse lies with the abuser and there are no acceptable excuses for sexually abusing a child. Abusers are not easily recognisable as such. They do not identify themselves and are quite adept at grooming adults as well as children to gain their trust and dependency," Ms Prendiville said.
She said children did not have to be neglected to be abused. No parents could be with their child 24 hours a day, seven days a week, nor should they. A child could be abused while their guardians were in the bathroom or kitchen. It had been CARI's experience that children had been abused even during supervised access visits.