Archive for ireland
This items appears on the Independent Catholic News website (here)
Irish broadcasters RTE have apologised without reservation for false accusing a missionary in Kenya of raping a woman.In a statement, the Irish Missionary Union has welcomed the fact that RTE “has settled the defamation against it and has apologised unreservedly for the defamation inflicted on Fr Kevin Reynolds MHM, a Mill Hill Missionary whom it falsely accused of raping a woman in Kenya.”
The IMU says in a statement:
“We acknowledge the suffering that Fr Kevin has had to endure through this ordeal. The courage of Fr Kevin and the dignity with which ...
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Two schoolgirls were awarded over €10,500 each after being falsely accused of shoplifting when they agreed to help an old lady carry her shopping bags across a street.
Barrister Conor Bowman told the Circuit Civil Court that Danielle Meehan (17) and Lauren Matthews (13) — who were innocent — were corralled by security men on the Dublin street, along with the old woman, who was a well-known shoplifter, and herded back into a Marks & Spencer’s store.
Judge Leonie Reynolds said Danielle and Lauren, who were being “Good Samaritans”, had been defamed and falsely imprisoned by the store’s security staff.
Judge Reynolds awarded ...
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The following has been extracted from the Irish Times website here.
A dance teacher has been charged with making a false accusation that he was groped by X-Factor judge Louis Walsh in the toilets of a Dublin nightclub.
Leonard Watters (24), a father of two from Navan, Co Meath, of no fixed address, was arrested in his home town on Tuesday, after allegedly making an unfounded claim to the Garda that Mr Walsh had assaulted him in the Krystle nightclub, after a Westlife concert in the O2 in April.
He was brought before Dublin District Court yesterday afternoon and charged under section 12 ...
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Boy wins Lidl defamation case after being accused of theft
A five-year-old boy has won a defamation case against Lidl and been awarded £6,000 in damages after being falsely accused of stealing a packet of crisps.
Tadhg Mooney was accused by a shop assistant at the supermarket chain of stealing in June 2009.
Mooney, of Balbriggan, County Dublin, was shopping with his mother Rachel, when an assistant grabbed the boy’s arm, before imprisoning him in the store.
During the defamation proceedings against Lidl Ireland Ltd, the Circuit Civil Court heard that Mooney had suffered distress and inconvenience, and that his reputation had also been ...
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The vetting scheme for nine million people working with children and vulnerable adults in England, Wales and Northern Ireland has been halted.
Home Secretary Theresa May has announced that registration, due to begin next month, has been put on hold.
There will be a review of the entire vetting and barring scheme, with a scaling back to “common-sense levels”.
Shadow Home Secretary Meg Hillier says the cancellation is a “knee-jerk reaction”.
The government says the vetting scheme would have been “disproportionate and overly burdensome”.
Draconian
The proposed vetting database had been a response to the murders of two schoolgirls by school caretaker Ian Huntley in Soham ...
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A Limerick solicitor John Devane is suing the gardai, claiming he was falsely accused of sexual assault on a child after playing Santa at a school’s Christmas party.
Mr Devane claimed in the High Court yesterday that the allegations that he assaulted a special needs child were part of “a witch hunt” against him.
After being questioned by gardai as a result of the allegation, which he categorically denied, his world “fell apart” and he was left “devastated”, he said. He claims that during the course of the investigation, a garda said things to his sister and a friend which he claims ...
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A Dublin priest who was falsely accused of abuse has been commended for the manner in which he handled the case.
Of the 46 cases of sexual abuse examined, only one priest was found to be falsely accused. In two other cases there were suspicions or concerns, but no actual complaint of child sexual abuse.
“Fr Ricardus” was ordained in the 1960s and worked in various parishes around Dublin. In January 2003 a man accused him of sexual assault, buggery and attempted oral rape when he was aged seven.
The complaint was made to another priest and was passed on to the archdiocese ...
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The Report by Commission of Investigation into the handling by Church and State authorities of allegations and suspicions of child abuse against clerics of the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin is published today.
The Commission came about because of the RTÉ Prime Time programme Cardinal Secrets, broadcast in October 2002. Produced by Mary Raftery, with Mick Peelo reporting, it investigated the handling of clerical child sex abuse allegations in Dublin’s Catholic archdiocese.
The then minister for justice, Michael McDowell, said he was “very alarmed” by the programme, which he found “deeply disturbing”. It led to the Commission of Investigation Act 2004, which allowed for ...
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There is a very interesting article in the Times (26th May 2009) by David Sharrock, Ireland Correspondent regarding the Catholic Church in Ireland’s refusal to increase the amount they are agreed to contribute towards the cost of compensating victims of alleged child abuse.
The leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland has clashed with the religious orders involved in child abuse over the amount they are willing to contribute towards compensating victims. Eighteen Catholic congregations defied calls from Cardinal Sean Brady to be more generous in their dealings with those who suffered abuse.
Pressure has been building on the Catholic hierarchy to do something ...
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Following publication of the Ryan Report L.O.V.E. (Let Our Voices Emerge) have published the following statement.
The charity ‘Let Our Voices Emerge’ held an AGM last night. While we have always voiced our support for the Religious Congregations through the years, on foot of what we see are unpreceedented revelations of records that the Catholic Church covered up and the Leaderships did not reveal to us over the years of our support, while we still stand by the individual managers who were let down by the system,we now withdraw our support of the Religious Congregations.
Through our own experience in the Industrial ...
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The Ryan Commission have published their report into alleged historical abuse at religious institutions in Ireland. It makes grim reading with very little coverage of the extent to which any of the claims made were false. The full report can be downloaded here.
View the Executive Summary in accessible HTML format.
View the Commission Report in accessible HTML format.
Download the Executive Summary in PDF format
Download the Commission Report in PDF format
Background:
Establishment of the Commission
The Commission was established on 23 May, 2000, pursuant to the “Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse Act 2000” and given three primary functions:
to hear evidence of abuse from persons who allege they ...
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The following is an extract fromm an article by Brian McDonald, Shane Phelan, and Tim Healy apeared in the Independent [Ireland) newspaper on Tuesday April 28 2009
A man whose conviction for sexually assaulting a young girl has been declared a miscarriage of justice is expected to seek up to €1m in compensation from the State.
Michael Feichin Hannon (34) said his family had lived with a decade of “stigma” following his wrongful conviction for molesting a 10-year-old.
The Court of Criminal Appeal (CCA) yesterday declared the conviction a miscarriage of justice after the ‘victim’ in the case admitted she had made the ...
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Neighbour convicted after girl concocted tale of brutal sexual assault now faces battle with DPP to get case declared a miscarriage of justice.
Ireland has a long history of feuding over land, often with brutal consequences. John B Keane chronicled the murderous fall-out of one man’s hunger for land in The Field.
Last week, the Court of Criminal Appeal heard of the devastating effects that followed when a 10-year-old child became infected with the bitter enmity that divided two families and the rural west of Ireland community in which they lived.
Inspired by revenge and misplaced loyalty to her parents, the girl concocted ...
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ISA Decision Making (IDM) update
The Parliamentary process to introduce ISA Decision Making (IDM) via secondary legislation has been progressing and the date for the start of this transition to the new Vetting and Barring Scheme has now been fixed.
For background, as part of the transition to the new Vetting and Barring Scheme, the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) is due to take over decisions on new referrals to the existing barred lists (List 99, POCA, POVA in England and Wales) from the Secretaries of State at the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) and the Department of Health (DH).
Since 31 ...
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If you have been falsely accused of child abuse you should always consult with a solicitor who has experience in the appropriate area of law. Depending on what stage the allegation/complaint against you has progressed you are likely to need one, or all, of the following:-
Criminal defence lawyer to deal with with any initial police interview, trial and appeal process.
Employment lawyer to deal with any employment issues arising from the allegation/complaint. This might include suspension, loss of pay or pension rights, the investigative process, disciplinary hearing, and possible dismissal.
Family lawyer to deal with any issues that might arise in relation to ...
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A Christian Brother has been acquitted, by direction of Judge Tony Hunt, of sexually assaulting boys 40 years ago in a Galway industrial school.
Judge Hunt withdrew all 35 charges from the jury on day 11 of the trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
His decision to direct that not guilty verdicts be returned on all the charges came following submissions by defence counsel, Mr Hugh Hartnett SC (with Mr Philip Rhan BL).
The 72 year old accused had pleaded not guilty to the 35 counts of indecently assaulting six boys between 1967 and 1973 when they were residents at the school.
Source: Breaking ...
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The following article By Eamonn O’Neil appeared in the Obvserver on 21st April This morning in Glasgow city chamber’s historic banqueting hall – the place where Nelson Mandela received the freedom of the city in 1993 – the world’s first conference examining the post-exoneration treatment of the victims of the UK’s miscarriages of justice will take place. It’s a unique gathering, featuring academics, victims of wrongful convictions and legal experts, and will run for two days.There was a time in the UK where the term “miscarriage of justice” provoked outrage and indignation. Recall, for example, Lord Hailsham proclaiming with a ...
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The following article by Catherine Bennett appeared in the Observer on Sunday March 09 2008 on p31 of the Comment section.On the face of it, the exposure of Margaret B Jones, the latest contributor to the thriving phoney memoir genre, looks bad for aspiring liars. Penguin USA, which is now pulping her book, Love and Consequences, insists that its editors mind terribly about the truth and worked tirelessly to confirm that the ‘humanising’ story of a sexually abused, half-native American foster-child raised in a warm-hearted criminal family was authentic and not, as it emerged last week, a work of fiction, by ...
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New evidence regarding shaken baby syndrome is being put forward in a campaign to clear a convicted childminder. Baby Maeve Sheppard, from Slough, died aged 11-months in the care of Iver Heath childminder Keran Henderson. In a case at Reading Crown Court, jurors found Mrs Henderson guilty, jailing her for three years in November. New medical evidence was featured on BBC Panorama on Monday, which comes just a week after an appeal against Mrs Henderson’s conviction was submitted. During the television investigation an American professor of biomechanics, Dr Chris Van Ee claimed tests show that falling off a sofa does far ...
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FACT members will be familiar with the controversy over Kathy O’Beirne’s 2005 memoir, Kathy’s Story: A Childhood Hell Inside the Magdalene Laundries. Now the Daily Telegraph have added to the debate. …. It was a childhood tale of woe that touched the public’s heart. Kathy O’Beirne’s 2005 memoir, Kathy’s Story: A Childhood Hell Inside the Magdalene Laundries, painted a relentlessly grim picture of growing up in 1960s Ireland. Entitled Don’t Ever Tell in Britain, it shifted 400,000 copies, making O’Beirne the second best-selling Irish non-fiction writer of all time, after Frank McCourt, whose Angela’s Ashes had been no laugh-a-minute either. ...
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The following article by Foina Audley appeared in the Irish Post (here) on 20th February 2008.A controversial book penned by an Irish journalist claims to show a fellow author’s autobiographical tome to be full of false allegations, although she continues to stand by her story.Irish Daily Mail on Sunday journalist Hermann Kelly highlights the compensation culture he believes is fuelling false allegations made against the Catholic Church in Ireland and Britain, in his book Kathy’s Real Story.His contentious tale is being released in Britain next month and is likely to court controversy with claims that best-selling author Kathy O’Beirne, who in ...
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A Dublin woman has been jailed for four years for falsely claiming to the Rathmines Women’s Refuge that her father raped her. The woman, who can’t be named for legal reasons, was convicted in October of making the claims against her father who described her as being “bad from the day she was born”.The 35-year-old woman had denied making 13 false statements to the women’s refuge in 2002 claiming her father had raped and sexually abused her from the age of six, and that he was the father of one of her children.DNA evidence given during the trial proved that ...
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A centre should be established to help former victims of abuse in children’s homes, a report has suggested. It also recommended a “national task group” to oversee services for children in care and residential homes. The recommendations came in an report commissioned by the previous Scottish Executive, into abuse in Scottish children’s homes between 1950 and 1995. Children’s Minister Adam Ingram said he would consider how lessons could be learned from the past. The report by Tom Shaw, former chief inspector of education in Northern Ireland, focused on child welfare regulations over a 45-year period, and how these were enforced. ...
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Prefect Press have announced that Kathy‘s Real Story : A culture of false allegations will be published on 5th November 2007.Kathy‘s Real Story: A culture of false allegations exposed. Author: Hermann KellyThis is a compelling read and a shocking story, which begins with shame and ends with the triumph of an Irish family over false allegations of abuse. The family of best-selling author Kathy O’Beirne tells the real story behind her book, casting light on a destructive culture of false allegations hurting innocent people in Ireland. Kathy O‘Beirne‘s book, Kathy‘ s Story (Don‘t Ever Tell in Britain) alleged that she ...
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The following article by Nick Pryer appeared in the Daily Mail on 6th October 2007
The couple who won a landmark legal battle to keep their baby son, after their first three children were forcibly adopted because of false allegations of child abuse, have won the first stage of their fight to get his siblings back.
Mark and Nicky Webster have been granted legal aid for their attempt to appeal against the May 2004 care order that resulted in them losing the children, who can be identified only as A, B and C.
The decision to grant the order, made after a one-day ...
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