Still doing what we’ve always done: Victims and survivors still await publication of the independent review of child sex abuse allegations in St John Ambulance.

As someone who researches disclosure of childhood sexual abuse I am all too aware of the research regarding barriers to disclosure. Professor Delphine Colin-Vézina at McGill University, drawing upon the foundational work of Professor Ramona Alaggia (University of Toronto) carefully charted barriers from within, barriers in relation to others, and barriers in relation to the social world. When imparting such knowledge to social work students in the classroom it is often a challenging task to discuss the internal or personal barriers. We can talk about shame and trauma, we can talk about guilt and self-blame, we can talk about the knowledge of the various acts that a child may or may not have had at a particular time of abuse. But imparting an understanding and appreciation of shame or trauma, without having experienced them, can be a challenge. What is unfortunately a more straight forward task is to talk about the wider barriers, those out there in society in our communities. This is because again and again, we are reminded of how society silences.

Almost this time last year I wrote a blog post about ‘doing what we’ve always done‘ when it comes to our responses to survivors of childhood sexual abuse. In that blog wrote about how we have continually learned the same hard lessons about the abuse of children and the vulnerable in Irish society. I also referenced the forthcoming report of Dr Geoffrey Shannon into the abuse of volunteers within the St John Ambulance organisation. Like so many other scenarios like this, we see that when one victim comes forward, others come forward. At my time of writing there were seven identified victims who suffered abuse as members of St John Ambulance, another has come forward since then and we simple will never know about those who don’t come forward.

We still unfortunately place the burden on victims and survivors to create a path, a safe space, for others to come forward instead of doing this as a society. Instead of developing the resources, supports, responses, and messaging that says ‘You too can come forward!’ As an example of the burden of carving such a path, for the past week there is a man standing in silent protest outside the offices of St John Ambulance on Upper Leeson Street in Dublin 4. He is acting on behalf of that group of survivors of child sexual abuse who have come forward. He is not vexatious, his allegations are not unfounded, and, as with so many others who break the silence around child sexual abuse, he is not alone. He is seeking the publication of a report that was commissioned in March 2021.

Dr Geoffrey Shannon, child law expert and former State Child Protection Rapporteur, was commissioned to conduct an independent review of the allegations. Dr Shannon is renowned for his thorough and detailed exploration of complex matters. In this instance, he spent over a year meeting with survivors and conducting the review of procedures within the organisation and his report was completed and submitted to the Board of St John Ambulance in November 2022.

The terms of reference of the review covered two main areas. The first of these was to examine the allegations that have been presented to the organisation and to ascertain the efficacy of the response, to examine if there are any other complaints against the named individual in those allegations, and to ascertain if there are any complaints against any other members of the organisation. The second stream of the review was to examine “the adequacy of arrangements now in place for the protection of children and vulnerable adults who may come into membership of SJAI“.

The Board of the organisation issued a statement suggesting that it intends to share the report with survivors and publish it in full following an internal review by their Board. An internal review of the report would be a normal first response. However, several months have now passed and victims and survivors still await this publication (link worth a listen as a primer to this issue). And as mentioned, they are not alone. The Minister for Children has echoed calls for the publication of the report and urged the Board to publish without delay. The President of Ireland has also endorsed the call for publication of the report as soon as possible. In a statement covered by Ailbhe Connelly of RTÉ, the Áras said that the President “is very conscious of the pain and hurt suffered by the victims of abuse and of the continuing impact which such abuse continues to have on their lives“. And yet today, still we wait.

What is important now is that those who can, continue to call for the publication of the report. That the report itself is first released to the victims and survivors so that they have an opportunity to review it and respond to it, and that the report is then published. It is then the responsibility of the state and associated departments and agencies to ensure responses and resources are in place to respond to those impacted. There is no doubt in my mind that when this report is published and garners media attention (lacking to date bar a handful of journalists) that others will see the carved pathway, the safe space, to come forward.

Time, yet again, for us to see and hear.