Organised gangs of predatory men are targeting vulnerable girls in State care, Extra.ie has learned.
The revelation comes as a new report reveals a teenage girl who absconded from her emergency care placement was gang-raped by ‘five middle-aged men’ in Dublin.
But despite the attack on the minor by a ‘network of paedophiles’, Tusla secured a 14-day extension to an Interim Care Order (ICO) for her to remain under their supervision, in contravention of her mother’s wishes.
The Sexual Exploitation Research and Policy (SERP) Institute this weekend confirmed the case is not an isolated one.
SERP director Ruth Breslin said the group’s research has found ‘organised’ groups of men across the country have identified the locations of residential care facilities and ‘target girls at these locations’.
Ms Breslin also said sexual exploitation of vulnerable children in State care is not ‘being taken as seriously as it should be’.
The disturbing case involving the rape of the teenage girl in Dublin city, which is currently being investigated by specialist gardaí, is one of 77 reports published this week by the Child Law Project.
The organisation, established in 2012, monitors child protection proceedings. In its report into the rape of the vulnerable girl, the group noted she was taken into care in recent months after her mother was detained under the Mental Health Act.
The girl would be collected, taken to a park, sexually assaulted, and then returned to her placement.
Ahead of the Dublin District Court hearing before Christmas, the teenager was subjected to an invasive sexual assault investigation and was scheduled for a specialist Garda interview the day after appearing in court.
Her mother told the court that, at ‘all times she was in my care… she was never raped’.
She added: ‘I am very angry right now. She can be in my care from 6am to 10pm at night but she can’t sleep in my care. I don’t understand that. I cannot comprehend in my head what my child has been going through. A network of paedophiles, men swapping her around.’
Ms Breslin said research carried out by SERP indicates girls living in State-run residential care are ‘particularly vulnerable’.
Citing some of the cases the research group has come across, she added: ‘There were girls who had an older “boyfriend”, and all of the things you might imagine in terms of a grooming situation. We learned of these kinds of cases, and it seems to be that girls in care are particularly vulnerable.’
In the case highlighted in the Child Law Project, the victim’s mother told the court that the Special Emergency Arrangement (SEA) her daughter was staying in allowed her to go and meet another girl. This girl, in turn, arranged for them both to meet middle-aged men.
Research by SERP found groups of men are manipulating vulnerable girls into ‘recruiting’ other girls.
Ms Breslin said: ‘Another thing we heard, which is really sad, is sometimes [girls] would be invited to a party by these men and told “hey, bring a friend”.’
During the court hearing, the mother of the teenage girl said Tusla never helped her to find her daughter when she went missing, and that they ‘switch their phones off at 5pm and it is up to me to find her’.
Her solicitor told the court the teenager went missing from care approximately 10 times since the previous court date in June, and that her mother was left to walk the streets looking for her.
On one occasion when the girl went missing, the SEA team collected her from her mother’s house, but she immediately went missing from their care when they stopped at a shop. It was around this time that the child was raped by five men.
The judge noted the matter had spiralled out of control and said Tusla had to account for the girl’s safety.
A social worker who was asked how a child could go missing and be exposed to harm while in their care told the court that a SEA is an ‘open-door facility that is prohibited from using any restrictive practices’.
She acknowledged a Special Care Placement, which is considered only when a child is at risk to themselves or at risk of harming others, should be progressed.
The judge described the evidence given in the case as ‘alarming’. But she said allowing the child to return home would not be the correct thing to do.
The judge ruled she would ‘very reluctantly’ extend the ICO for 14 days.
Commenting on the ‘extremely serious’ case, Ms Breslin said: ‘She’s in the care of the State at the most dangerous time, which is night-time. Staff at the SEA are obviously saying, “this girl still has her freedom, she’s not locked in, we want to respect her”.
‘In conversations we had after our research, we were told, “if you think it’s bad in standard residential homes, the concerns are even higher in SEAs.”’ Ms Breslin said SERP presented its findings to Tusla, and that the agency responded to say it had a protocol in place with gardaí and that staff training was also strengthened.
But she added: ‘Nevertheless, I’m sorry to say, I still see these cases coming and I still feel that those vulnerabilities are there and that sexual exploitation isn’t being taken as seriously as it should be.’ In response to queries, Tusla said it does ‘not comment on individual cases, in order to protect the privacy of the children and families we work with’.
A spokesman added the agency is also ‘not in a position to provide any further comment on cases that are subject to an ongoing Garda investigation’.
He said Tusla is ‘acutely aware of risks in relation to the exploitation of vulnerable young people, and the agency continues to take steps to strengthen our response in this area’.
The spokesman added that, since the publication of research carried out by SERP, ‘Tusla has undertaken a number of steps to strengthen the agency’s response to, and reporting of, child sexual exploitation and trafficking concerns, including the development and implementation of further staff training and a review of child sexual exploitation concerns in residential care’.
*This article was originally published on Extra.ie.
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