Abuser's treatment cost outstrips total to help his 15 victims
Taxpayer foots €700,000 bill for treatment
Monday March 16 2009
THE cost of addiction and psychiatric treatment for a paedophile who abused 15 children, the youngest of whom was just two years old, could exceed €700,000.
The figure is far in excess of the money spent on counselling young victims of Kevin Scully, the sex offender from Glounaphuca, Drimoleague, Co Cork, who was jailed for 20 years for a campaign of abuse.
Some IR£290,000 -- around €350,000 -- alone was spent by the then Southern Health Board (SHB) in sending Scully on a two-year treatment programme to Glebe House in the UK.
It is estimated that at least €350,000 was spent on treating him over the last five years at the Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum, Dublin. After more than two years at Glebe House, the centre found that Scully had "made no progress" -- a fact disputed by Scully during his sentencing hearing.
Scully has been treated at the Central Mental Hospital (CMH) in Dublin since May 12, 2003.
CMH officials stressed, however, that Scully -- who was just 15 years old when he began the campaign of abuse -- shows no signs of mental illness or any brain injury.
His Cork Circuit Criminal Court sentencing hearing earlier this month heard that he is now deemed by gardai to be at the highest risk level for re-offending.
Release
Scully was handed a 20-year prison term for the campaign of abuse against the youngsters who were aged between two and eight years old.
However, with seven years of the sentence suspended and the commencement term of the sentence backdated to May 2003, Scully could be eligible for release by 2013.
He pleaded guilty to 16 sample counts of sexual assault against 15 different children.
The offences occurred at different locations in Cork on various dates between 1997 and 2000.
They involved a total of 10 girls and five boys.
Cork Circuit Criminal Court was told by a senior garda that the SHB/Health Service Executive (HSE) has provided ongoing counselling services to all of the victims and their families since 2000.
The HSE stressed to the Irish Independent that it is impossible to put a figure on the precise cost of this counselling.
However, one garda source indicated that the cost of counselling for victims will prove substantially less than the bill facing the State through Scully's addiction and psychiatric treatment.
- Ralph Riegel
