IRELAND
Irish Independent
Jim Cusack
March 12 2017
A new programme to train gardai in interviewing child sexual abuse victims has been introduced following repeated instances of cases taking up to six years to prosecute.
Last October it was revealed that the case of an eight-year-old girl allegedly raped by a teenage boy during a party at her home was left languishing in the Garda’s system for six years before it was finally dropped.
Various failures were highlighted by a Garda Siochana Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) investigation into the case of ‘Miss A’ who was attacked at her home in July 2008.
The case was initially investigated and was “almost complete” within a month but then left for six years owing to a “systems failure'” GSOC concluded. The prosecution was then dropped.
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