‘How many more paedophiles will be dead before this commission begins?’: abuse survivor criticises state investigation

A sur­vivor of sexual abuse at Dub­lin’s Black­rock Col­lege said he feels “des­pair” that a stat­utory invest­ig­a­tion into sexual abuse at reli­gious-run schools has yet to con­tact vic­tims.

Over 18 months ago, a scop­ing inquiry into alleg­a­tions of abuse at schools run by reli­gious orders was pub­lished.

The inquiry was launched in 2022 after an RTÉ doc­u­ment­ary high­lighted the abuse broth­ers Mark and David Ryan suffered at the fee-pay­ing Black­rock Col­lege in south Dub­lin.

A report later found there were 2,395 alleg­a­tions of sexual abuse across 308 schools run by reli­gious orders. The alleg­a­tions were made against 884 alleged abusers.

After this report was pub­lished in Septem­ber 2024, the Gov­ern­ment announced a com­mis­sion of invest­ig­a­tion, to fur­ther exam­ine what emerged from the pre­lim­in­ary invest­ig­a­tion.

Justice Michael Mac­Grath has been appoin­ted by the Gov­ern­ment to chair the com­mis­sion. However, sur­viv­ors say they have yet to be con­tac­ted and have “no idea” how the stat­utory invest­ig­a­tion will oper­ate, one told the Sunday Inde­pend­ent.

Michael Mans­field (60) was among 137 people who gave evid­ence of sexual abuse to the scop­ing inquiry.

Mr Mans­field, who grew up two doors down from the Ryan broth­ers in Black­rock, said he was abused between the ages of 12 and 14 by the same priest as the broth­ers.

He praised the pre­lim­in­ary invest­ig­a­tion, led by bar­ris­ter Mary O’Toole, say­ing it did a “won­der­ful” job. However, he expressed sur­prise and dis­may that the com­mis­sion of invest­ig­a­tion has yet to con­tact sur­viv­ors.

“It’s over 18 months since the scop­ing inquiry was pub­lished. I’m left with feel­ings of des­pair that I haven’t been con­tac­ted by the com­mis­sion yet,” Mr Mans­field said.

“I’m los­ing con­fid­ence that things are not mov­ing. I’ve looked at the com­mis­sion of invest­ig­a­tion’s web­site, I can­not even con­tact them dir­ectly. I find that very strange and dis­heart­en­ing.”

Mr Mans­field, an account­ant who now lives in the Neth­er­lands, said he is seek­ing clar­ity on how the com­mis­sion will oper­ate.

“I’m unsure of their powers,” he said. “Will the schools be required to give evid­ence? Will the sur­viv­ors give evid­ence in pub­lic? Is it to be a truth and recon­cili­ation com­mis­sion? Will it address com­pens­a­tion? Will abusers be named and shamed? Its powers have not been fully out­lined. Will it exam­ine if there was a pae­do­phile ring, for example, which I have always believed there was?”

A spokes­per­son for the Depart­ment of Edu­ca­tion said the Com­mis­sion of Invest­ig­a­tion into the Hand­ling of His­tor­ical Child Sexual Abuse in Day and Board­ing Schools is fully inde­pend­ent and “will determ­ine its own rules and pro­ced­ures and will com­mu­nic­ate widely when it is ready to begin gath­er­ing inform­a­tion from those who may wish to con­trib­ute to its work”.

The spokes­per­son said the com­mis­sion is at a pre­par­at­ory stage, and that sur­viv­ors will be con­tac­ted in due course.

“It also has powers to com­pel people to attend and give evid­ence before the com­mis­sion.

“These include the power to dir­ect any per­son to attend before the com­mis­sion and to give evid­ence and pro­duce any doc­u­ment that is in the per­son’s pos­ses­sion. The com­mis­sion does not have a role in rela­tion to redress or com­pens­a­tion,” the spokes­per­son added.

“The com­mis­sion is now in its estab­lish­ment phase and is cur­rently under­tak­ing essen­tial tech­nical and pre­par­at­ory work on the neces­sary secure sys­tems and pro­cesses required to sup­port its highly sens­it­ive work.

“This includes crit­ical work relat­ing to the secur­ity and pri­vacy of data and inform­a­tion that will be sought by the com­mis­sion, in par­tic­u­lar from those who exper­i­enced child sexual abuse in schools.

“This is a mat­ter of pri­or­ity, as data pri­vacy and secur­ity are key con­cerns for those provid­ing deeply per­sonal and sens­it­ive inform­a­tion, many of whom may be shar­ing these details for the first time.”

The spokes­per­son added that inform­a­tion from sur­viv­ors will be “an import­ant part of the work of the com­mis­sion”, and that it will “carry out a national sur­vey later this year in which people can provide ini­tial inform­a­tion”.

It also said the com­mis­sion will appoint a “sur­vivor engage­ment pro­gramme”, in which those who exper­i­enced child­hood sexual abuse in schools will have the oppor­tun­ity to tell their story.

“When the com­mis­sion is ready to begin its engage­ment with sur­viv­ors of child sexual abuse in schools, this will be widely advert­ised once the neces­sary sys­tems and struc­tures are in place.”

Mr Mans­field said he suffered sexual abuse by the now-deceased Black­rock Col­lege priest Fr Tom O’Byrne, ori­gin­ally from Lim­er­ick. Mark and David Ryan were in their 30s when they dis­cussed their abuse by O’Byrne for the first time, and decided to go to gardaí.

The DPP later ruled there was enough evid­ence to charge the cleric with rape and sexual abuse of the three men.

O’Byrne denied the charges and launched a legal case seek­ing to halt crim­inal pro­ceed­ings. In 2007, the Supreme Court decided the crim­inal case should be hal­ted due to his age. O’Byrne died in 2010, hav­ing never faced trial.

Mr Mans­field said: “My abuser is already dead. How many more pae­do­philes will be dead before this com­mis­sion gets up and run­ning? I would think time should be of the essence.”