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Minister for Justice Alan Shatter Sasko Lazarov/Photocall Ireland
Child Abuse
Parents face prosecution for silence on child abuse
New laws aimed at stopping unreported sexual assaults will also apply to family members, Minister Alan Shatter has said.
PARENTS COULD BE prosecuted if they do not tell gardaí when their own children may have been sexually abused, under proposed new legislation.
The Government is planning to introduce mandatory reporting of child abuse claims, after the Cloyne report exposed a number of occasions when alleged abuse by priests was not passed on to gardaí. However there will be no exception to the new law, which will also apply to parents, Minister for Justice Alan Shatter told the Sunday Business Post (print edition).
All professionals working with children will also be covered by the proposed measures. Minister Shatter said anyone who failed to report allegations to gardaí would have to show a “reasonable excuse for not doing so”.
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