SURVIVOR MICK FINNEGAN has vowed to hold a silent protest outside of the St John’s Ambulance (SJAI) HQ on a daily basis until an independent report investigating child sex abuse allegations within the organisation is published.
The report by child law expert Dr Geoffrey Shannon was received by the board of St John’s Ambulance last November “following a comprehensive independent review of the handling of historical child sexual abuse within the organisation”, they said.
It also includes an assessment of the current safeguarding practices within SJAI “to inform areas of learning and further improvement”.
At the time that the board received the report, they said that it would be published in full after legal scrutiny had been carried out. They acknowledged that many people would be “eager to view the findings”.
Mick Finnegan is one of the survivors who reported being sexually abused as a child by a senior volunteer at the organisation over 20 years ago.
Finnegan has previously told The Journal that he still feels there has been a complete lack of “accountability” for the abuse that he and others say they suffered.
“They have never apologised to us. At one point in time we were offered six counselling sessions, that wouldn’t begin to touch what people has been through,” he said.
He has repeatedly called for the report to be published, as it has now been over two months since it was handed over to the SJAI board.
President Michael D. Higgins has supported Finnegan’s calls, and has also stated that the report should be published “as soon as possible”.
Now, Finnegan had said that he will carry out a silent protest every day that he can outside of the SJAI HQ in Dublin until the board releases the report.
I'm outside St John Ambulance Headquarters in Dublin to protest their delay in releasing the report into child sexual abuse. I know it's a bank holiday, but what I experienced as a child I carry every day #BreakTheSilence pic.twitter.com/f5JRX24tS5
— Mick Finnegan (@Mick_Finnegan) February 6, 2023
“I’m doing this to highlight the delay in publication of the report, and I will sit outside St John Ambulance HQ everyday until this happens,” he said.
It’s understood that at least nine men have claimed they were sexually abused by the same former senior member of St. John’s ambulance from the 1960’s through to the 1990s.
Tusla, having carried out their own statutory investigation, stated that their allegations were “founded.”
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