Significant numbers of parents whose children are sexually abused refuse to allow cases to go to court due to concerns over the effects of cross-examination on their children, an Oireachtas committee heard yesterday.
Dr Imelda Ryan, director of St Louise's child and adolescent sexual treatment unit, said many parents saw the courts as a hostile environment for children and did not want to subject them to further trauma.
The number of cases of child sex abuse in which perpetrators did not face trial was of major concern, Dr Ryan told the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Child Protection.
"They do not want to put their children through a process which they perceive as hostile. The numbers are quite significant," she said.
"We expect young children and adolescents to take part in a process that many adults find complex, confusing and intimidating. We require them to answer detailed questions about harrowing events in the presence of strangers and often times the defendant."
The experience of a hostile cross-examination was often more traumatic for a child than other upsetting court-related experiences, such as the acquittal of the accused.
She said a number of steps could be taken to ensure the criminal justice system facilitated children to provide evidence in a more sensitive manner.
Allowing children to provide evidence by way of video statement was one step which has yet to be introduced.
The use of an "intermediary", as used in jurisdictions such as South Africa, would also be a useful step.
In these cases the child does not hear or see the people in court, while the intermediary puts the questions of a cross-examining barrister to the child in language they understand.
Minister of State for Children Brian Lenihan suggested that age-related "zones of protection" be put in place to protect children from being cross-examined across certain areas. These could include the defences available to an accused, such as honest mistake in relation to a child's age.
Dr Harry Kennedy of the Irish College of Psychiatrists also told the committee that treatment programmes for sex offenders provide a partial success in reducing recidivism. There was little if any link between sex offending and severe mental illness.
Alcohol and substance abuse were far more significant factors in tendencies to sexual abuse.
