The Curragh prison has no treatment facilities for more than 92 sex offenders, a conference on child sexual abuse organised by Catholic priests has been told. Therapist Marie Keenan of Dublin's Granada Institute was addressing a public conference on child sexual abuse in Athlone, organised by the National Conference of Priests.
She said that half of all child sexual abuse was carried out by someone from the victim's family, that a third was done by people under the age of 18 and that up to seven out of ten abusers had themselves suffered abuse. She said that there was ample evidence that treating offenders reduced the rate of reoffending. Yet the Curragh Prison, housing more than 92 sex offenders has no treatment facilities, and in the Republic's entire prison system, there are only 10 treatment places for 300 sex offenders.
Another speaker, Garda Joe Sheerin described the sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of a family friend when he was a teenager. He accused both the Catholic Church and the state of ignoring victim's complaints in the past, because of the fear of being sued for damages. However, the Catholic hierarchy's spokesman, Fr. Martin Clarke said that the Church's main concern was not compensation, but that the main difficulty was that the Church did not understand the nature of the sexual abuse problem.
