‘it Will Be a Relief for the Victims’

By Maria Tracey
Cork News
March 23, 2012

http://thecorknews.ie/articles/%E2%80%98it-will-be-relief-victims%E2%80%99-4818

Sexual Violence Centre director welcomes investigation into Garda handling of Cloyne sex abuse

An investigation into the Garda handling of a number of complaints of sex abuse as outlined in the Cloyne Report will come as a “relief” to those involved. That is according to director of Cork’s Sexual Violence Centre, Mary Crilly who said that for victims of sexual abuse, “transparency and accountability means everything”. The Garda Siochana Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) has decided to open an investigation, under section 102(4) of the Garda Siochana Act 2005, into certain matters arising from the Commission of Investigation Report into the Catholic diocese of Cloyne.

The matters to be investigated arise from Chapter 10 of the report and relate to concerns over Garda behaviour. The report outlined a case involving a priest described as Father Corin, stating: “In one case, an investigation was clearly not commenced. The senior Garda involved insists that an investigation did commence but the evidence demonstrates otherwise. There are no investigation files in existence. The Commission has not been able to establish why an investigation did not take place in this case but it has no doubt that there was no investigation even though there was a complaint.”

In a second instance involving the same priest, the report read: “It is clear that, at minimum, proper procedures in relation to the recording of notifications were not followed.”

Fr Corin, who later resigned, acknowledged to Bishop Magee that he was guilty of child sexual abuse in 1996. He died in 2002.

Ms Crilly said that it is important that the situation is dealt with properly: “I think it would be a relief for the victims that an investigation is underway. The way the system works is that victims of sexual abuse are just witnesses. They have no control. So while they may think ‘Okay, it hasn’t gone to court’, there could be still justice,” she said.

Ms Crilly added that, in her experience of dealing with victims of child sexual abuse, there is a need for the Church to accept responsibility. “The gardai came secondary,” she said. “People want some kind of justice, and the Church still hasn’t really taken ownership.”