Seán Kenny (Dublin North East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I warmly welcome the Bill which, when it is enacted, will make it mandatory for persons working with children or vulnerable adults to be vetted by the Garda. A series of reports has clearly demonstrated the absolute need to strengthen our procedures to protect children and vulnerable adults. The publication of the Bill represents a major step in that direction. The State has a tragic legacy of having failed children and vulnerable persons. This legacy must be addressed comprehensively.

As well as the Bill and forthcoming legislation, we will also be holding a referendum to enshrine the rights of children in our Constitution for the first time and to afford protection to adopted children that does not currently exist. The amendment will give children constitutional rights that are robust, but in a way that does not undermine the rights of parents unless they have failed in their duty towards their children. I wholeheartedly welcome this referendum.

The need for vetting is clearly illustrated by the case of the murderer Ian Huntley in the United Kingdom. I note that Deputy Catherine Murphy referred to this case. While it happened in the United Kingdom, it has relevance for this jurisdiction as an example of what is sometimes referred to as soft information not being recorded. People will remember the awful murder of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, two ten year old girls who were murdered in Soham in England over a decade ago. The girls passed the home of their local school caretaker, Ian Huntley, who called them into his house and murdered them.

The history of Ian Huntley is disturbing and relevant not only for his actions, but for the lack of action by the authorities. He could have been stopped from working at his job which involved caretaking duties at a local school. While his dreadful acts did not take place on school property, he should never have been allowed to work with children. Huntley had no previous criminal record. Nevertheless, a number of points about his history should be noted. After he had been convicted of the murders it was revealed that he had been investigated for sexual offences and burglary but had been allowed to work in a school, as none of these investigations had resulted in a conviction. In August 1995, when Huntley was 21 years old, a joint investigation was launched by the police and social services in Grimsby after a 15 year old girl admitted that she had been having sex with Huntley. Police did not pursue the case against Huntley, in accordance with the girl's wishes. In March, April and May 1996, Huntley was again investigated over three allegations of having sex with an under age girl. Again, he was not charged. In 1998, Huntley was arrested on suspicion of raping a woman. He admitted having sex with the woman but claimed it was consensual. The police decided not to charge Huntley. In May 1998, Huntley was charged with rape and remanded in custody, after an 18 year old Grimsby woman claimed to have been raped by him on her way home from a nightclub in the town. The charge was dropped a week later after the Crown Prosecution Service examined the CCTV images from the nightclub and determined there was no chance of a conviction. In July 1998, Huntley was again investigated by the police about allegations that he had indecently assaulted an 11 year old girl in September 1997. However, he was never charged, but in April 2007 he confessed that he had attacked the girl. In February 1999, Huntley was investigated over allegations of rape of a 17 year old woman but no charges were made against him. In July 1999, when a woman was raped and Huntley, by now suspected by police of being a serial sex offender, was interviewed, he supplied a DNA sample and had an alibi provided by Maxine Carr, later his accomplice in the Soham murders, to assert his innocence. The woman subsequently said Huntley was not the rapist. This was the only case where the victim had not identified Huntley or named him as the attacker. Following the announcement of Huntley's conviction for the Soham murders, it emerged that various authorities were aware of these allegations from a number of sources. The only allegation that resulted in a charge was a rape for which he had been remanded in custody but released when the Crown Prosecution Service decided there was not enough evidence for a conviction.

On the day of Huntley's conviction the, then, UK Home Secretary, Mr. David Blunkett announced an inquiry into the vetting system that had allowed Huntley to get a caretaking job at a school, despite four separate complaints about him reaching the social services.

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