An independent report has found that a conservative ethos in St John Ambulance appeared to have led it to incorporating “homophobic myths” into its early child-protection training and “significantly undermined” efforts to keep children safe.
The focus of child-protection training during the early 2000s was described by one volunteer as aimed at “keeping the gays out”, the report by Dr Geoffrey Shannon SC said.
Dr Shannon found the organisation had failed to act on concerns and knowledge of risks posed by a former senior figure in its Old Kilmainham division, who is accused of molesting more than 15 boys between the late 1960s and 1990s.
In his report, the child law expert criticised shortcomings in both St John Ambulance’s current child-protection practices and its handling of cases of alleged child abuse in recent years. The report said elements of the organisation’s culture and a resistance to change posed an “ongoing threat” to the charity keeping children safe.
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It said there was “little to no training” in the area of child protection for volunteers before 2000. After this point, training included “homophobic myths” in the advice to members.
In one instance, training provided by an older volunteer focused on “myths about the relationship between homosexuality and child abuse”, the report said.
One volunteer interviewed by Dr Shannon said the member running the training “was basically equating gay people with paedophiles”. The narrative being put forward was that child protection was just “about keeping the gays out” of the organisation, the report said.
Members who gave evidence to the review said they were “deeply embarrassed about the nature” of the training. Some volunteers who spoke to the review described the early approach as “at best outdated and irrelevant”.
Dr Shannon said other volunteers sought to defend the organisation’s early approach “by claiming such homophobic views were commonplace in the late 1990s and early 2000s”, which the report rejected as an excuse.
It found that “there was a culture of conservatism” within St John Ambulance, which likely had the effect of “significantly” undermining initial attempts to develop a formal child-protection policy in the early 2000s.
Interviewees said St John Ambulance began to take child protection seriously from 2011 onwards, appointing an external social worker as its child-protection officer.
Dr Shannon said he believed the organisation “operated an unsafe child-safety culture” up to 2011, after which point reforms were made. However, he said further improvements were still needed.
Dr Shannon, who has been nominated for appointment as a Circuit Court judge, said during some interviews current senior members were still “not familiar” with essential pillars of child safeguarding policy.
When asked how they would approach a hypothetical child-protection risk, they deferred to reporting up the old “chain-of-command” structures, which Dr Shannon said was an “unsafe” approach to child protection.
In response to the findings of the report, St John Ambulance issued an apology to survivors and accepted that its structures in the past had facilitated the grooming and abuse of cadets.
A spokeswoman for Tusla, the child and family agency, said it planned to meet the board of St John Ambulance to discuss “the issues identified in Dr Shannon’s report”.
Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC, the Government’s special rapporteur on child protection, said she was “extremely concerned” at the findings of contemporary failings. There were “real questions to be asked” of State agencies in the controversy, she said. This included the “decision not to prosecute” by the Director of Public Prosecutions, after several men made allegations of sexual abuse by the former senior figure to gardaí.
Ms Gallagher is also due to hold talks with the board of St John Ambulance and with Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman to discuss the controversy.
