How Could You? Hall of Shame-Ireland-Keith Burke UPDATED

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Galway, Ireland, “a woman repeatedly raped as a child by a teenager over a period of seven years while she was in the care of his parents has called for the establishment of a statutory commission of investigation
into what happened.

The woman, identified as “Sarah”, was one of three girls raped by Keith Burke (29) of Addergoolemore, Dunmore, Co Galway, between 2003 and 2007. He was between 14 and 18 at the time, while the girls were all under 10.

Burke was jailed for 7 ½ years earlier this month at the Central Criminal Court. The three women told their stories in an RTÉ Investigates Fostered and Failed programme, aired on Tuesday night. The Health Service Executive has apologised unreservedly for failings in the care of the three girls.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar told the Dáil on Wednesday an independent report on the case is due soon after it was delayed because of a criminal case.

He said the child and family agency Tusla would act on its recommendations.

The report is based on an investigation initiated by Tusla through the national review panel two years ago. The review was carried out by experts in the childcare sector.

In 2000, aged just five, Sarah was placed in foster care with Kathleen and Gerry Burke. Over the following years she was systematically raped by Keith Burke.

Rachel Barry, another of those abused by Burke when she was a young girl, waived her anonymity and was interviewed in the RTÉ programme. She was placed in the family home for weekly respite care in 2005, from the age of eight.

In a statement issued on behalf of his client Sarah on Wednesday, solicitor Ronan Hynes of Keating Connolly Sellors Solicitors noted the “full, unreserved apology” from the HSE in respect of the service failings experienced by Sarah and the other girls.

Horrific circumstances’

“Their bravery and courage to speak out was truly remarkable in horrific circumstances. There remain however many unanswered questions,” Mr Hynes wrote.

“Our client and her family have in the past been met by a wall of silence from the HSE and Tusla. In no way does the HSE apology diminish our determination on behalf of our client to seek a full independent inquiry into the sexual child abuse which occurred at the foster care home in Co Galway. We strongly believe that these cases should now be fully investigated by way of a commission of investigation.”

Mr Hynes has written to Ministers for Health Simon Harris and Minister for Children and Youth Affairs Katherine Zappone to request that such a commission be established immediately “to ensure accountability within our State agencies, and most importantly, that the victims of abuse and their families get the answers they are looking for”.

“Sarah and her family do not believe for one second that a review by the National Review Panel, which is commissioned by Tusla, will lead to a full independent and transparent inquiry. This needs to be a watershed moment for the foster care system in Ireland and, in particular, the responsible State agencies.”

Mr Varadkar told Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald in the Dáil that everyone was dismayed by the cases documented in the RTÉ programme.

‘Unspeakable and unforgiveable’

“Sexual crimes against children are the worst form of crime; abhorrent, unspeakable and unforgiveable,” he said.

Mr Varadkar said the sentence Burke received might be considered lenient by some people, but he said it was for the Director of Public Prosecutions to decide if an appeal was appropriate.

Irish Foster Carers’ Association chief executive Catherine Bond said a risk assessment on Burke should have been carried out and she warned that other children could come forward.

Chief executive of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre Noeline Blackwell called for changes to the prosecution service and to the way in which children are treated when they make a report of abuse.”

Woman raped as foster child urges commission of investigation

[Irish Times 4/25/18 by Marie O’Halloran, Elaine Edwards]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Update: “Systemic flaws in management, serious errors of judgement and poor assessment and decision making all played a role in the State’s failure to protect three children who were repeatedly raped by a teenager while in the care of the Health Service Executive between 2003 and 2007, the National Review Panel (NRP) has found.

The authors of the NRP report into the treatment of three girls cared for by foster parents Kathleen and Gerry Burke in Dunmore, Co Galway found that a “grave and heinous sexual abuse” had been perpetrated by the couple’s son on the children.

Keith Burke (29) of Addergoolemore, Dunmore, Co Galway, was last year jailed for 7½ years at the Central Criminal Court for the rape of the three girls between 2003 and 2007. He was aged between 14 and 18 at the time, while the girls were all under 10.

In 2007 one of the victims revealed she had been sexually abused and that a second girl, who was living with the same family, had also been raped. However, the two other children in the foster home denied that anything untoward had happened to them. A decision was made to leave them in the foster home under a safety plan which stipulated the couple’s son must live elsewhere and have no unsupervised contact with them.

The first girl’s allegation was assessed by the HSE as being credible and a file was sent to the DPP but no prosecution followed. Four years later one of the girls who had initially denied the abuse admitted that she had in fact been abused by Keith Burke over a number of years.
‘Unsound’

A Garda investigation later found a fourth young person, who had lived with the family many years earlier, had also been abused.

Tusla referred the case to the NRP to investigate how the case was handled. The review criticises the risk assessment of the family as “narrow and inadequate” and the safety plan implemented after the disclosure of abuse as “unsound”.

The plan did not identify the obstacles created by the foster carers’ refusal to believe any abuse had taken place and failed to recognise the “inherently limited capacity of” the social workers to monitor the situation, said the report. The family’s three sons were not included in the assessment process nor did it address the implications of placing female children into a family of boys, it added.

While the decision by the HSE’s social work department to leave two of the girls in the family’s care was made in “good faith”, there was “flawed assessment and decision-making and a lack of management oversight at critical points”. There was also no review of the foster placement following the first disclosure of child abuse.

The girls should have been moved, even though it would have been “disruptive to their stability in care and to the attachments they had formed with the foster carers”, said the review. It also noted that contact between fostering link workers and the family was infrequent and that link workers had little knowledge of the family’s birth children.

The ability of the social work department to share detailed information with the foster carers in the 18 months following the first and second disclosures of abuse was “impeded” by the Garda investigation into the crime, says the NRP, adding that this issue continues to cause problems for social workers throughout the country.
Expertise

However, most of the weaknesses in the cases stemmed from “systemic flaws in management, which failed to recognise the seriousness of the allegation made and failed to respond proportionately to that”.

While it recognises the abuse took place before the establishment of Tusla, the review recommends that the child and family agency develop a multi-agency policy response when dealing with complex child abuses cases and that such cases be overseen by senior management including gardaí and social workers with access to external expertise.

The National Policy and Procedures: Fostering Link Worker’s Role (2012) should be reviewed while the new model of investigation, assessment and management of child sexual abuse allegations being trailed by the Government must be based on a clear understanding and respect for the role and expertise of each agency involved, it said.

Any future assessment of foster families must be comprehensive and involve all family members and people living in the household while foster carer’s development should be regularly reviewed, it concludes. ”

Three girls suffered ‘grave and heinous sexual abuse’ while in foster care, report finds

[Irish Times 5/28/19 by Sorcha Pollack]