The Southern Health Board was yesterday criticised for taking over a year to contact the family of a profoundly disabled teenage girl as part of its investigation into sexual abuse by a taxi-driver hired by the board.
The SHB wrote to the girl's family on December 30th, informing them that, upon the taxi-driver's conviction in 1998 for sexually abusing minors, it had checked through the taxi-man's records from 1995 to 1997 to see who he had transported and when.
"Whilst we have no indication that he had perpetrated abuse on any of these passengers, given the nature of the offence, we are keen to ensure a full assessment of the matter," said an SHB social worker in her letter to the parents.
Yesterday the family said they found the news that their daughter might have been abused very distressing - particularly as they had no idea a taxi-driver involved in transporting her had been convicted of child sex abuse.
"We got this letter on December 30th - it came like a bolt out of the blue, the news our daughter might have been abused. She is profoundly and severely handicapped, so she can't tell us if anything happened. We were shocked," said the girl's mother.
"We're very worried since we heard because we really don't know what happened. We should have been told much sooner," she said, adding that it now raised their suspicions about a series of injuries her daughter suffered three years ago.
The parents' plight has been highlighted by Councillor Con O'Leary who criticised the SHB's handling of the matter, saying the board's delay in contacting the girl's parents was inexcusable.
"The health board sent out this letter over a year after this man was convicted to say they're investigating the matter. That's crazy. They should have carried out a full investigation the minute a complaint was made about him.
"They should have interviewed the parents of every kid in contact with him immediately to see if they had any suspicions. Contacting a family now, they're a century too late - what sort of set-up are they running at all?" he said.
An SHB spokeswoman said yesterday that she couldn't comment as those dealing with the case were unavailable.
