IRELAND
Irish Independent
Sarah MacDonald
PUBLISHED
03/12/2015
The head of the Catholic Church’s safeguarding watchdog has expressed concern at the low conviction rate of those accused of child sexual abuse.
Teresa Devlin, CEO of the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church (NBSCCCI), said just 4pc of all allegations result in a conviction.
Ms Devlin was commenting on the findings of the latest tranche of audits by the watchdog which examined 53 allegations made against 44 priests, brothers or nuns across 20 religious orders.
The allegations cover the period between 1941 and 2009 and resulted in no criminal convictions, which Ms Devlin said is “very, very hard”.
Speaking to the Irish Independent, she said: “Coming forward with an allegation is probably the hardest thing that anybody does because there are so many barriers in their way.”
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