Fears of fresh allegations in ‘Brandon’ sexual abuse case in Donegal care home

HSE to engage with those impacted by latest review at disability centre in Donegal

The perpetrator, who was given the pseudonym ‘Brandon’, pursued victims 'relentlessly' from 2003 until he left the centre in 2016. Pictured, Ard Gréine Court, Stranorlar, Co Donegal. Photo: Joe Dunne

Maeve Sheehan

May 29 2022 02:30 AM

A new report has raised fears of fresh allegations of sexual abuse of residents at a disability centre in Donegal. The latest report follows on from the Brandon report which found that 18 residents at the Ard Gréine Court centre in Stranorlar, Co Donegal, were sexually abused 108 times by another resident.

The perpetrator, who was given the pseudonym ‘Brandon’, pursued victims “relentlessly” from 2003 until he left the centre in 2016.

A second trawl of records looked for evidence of sexual abuse in the period not covered by the Brandon report from the year he first entered residential care in Donegal in 1991 until 2002. His files were screened for references to sexual activity and draft report was validated. It was given to HSE management last week.

A whistleblower alleged that Brandon raped two residents in 1992, however, one of those incidents was recorded in his files as “sexual intercourse”.

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The HSE has declined to comment on the findings of the validation report.

However, in a statement, it said it is “prioritising” its engagement with people impacted by the new report.

“The HSE is prioritising the engagement with individuals who are impacted by this report. In the interests of the anyone impacted, the HSE will ensure they are informed first and as such is not in a position to make any further statement on the report,” it said.

It also said it is implementing the findings of the validation report and continues to implement the findings of the original Brandon report.

The sexual abuse scandal in the disability centre emerged last October when a copy of the Brandon report was leaked to the media before agreement had been reached on whether it could be published.

The report was completed by the National Independent Review Panel (NIRP) which reviews only the most serious incidents within HSE services. Paul Reid, the chief executive of the HSE, later described their contents of the Brandon report as “repulsive” and “gruesome”.

The NIRP report examined the handling of Brandon’s case from 2003 onwards.

It found that management had full knowledge that Brandon was sexually assaulting residents, but had “neither the management skills nor competence to deal with the serious problems Brandon’s behaviour presented”.

It criticised the management policy of moving Brandon from place to place, which “simply created new opportunities” for him to abuse new victims.

The report found no evidence that families were told their loved ones were being abused. A psychiatrist warned that the failure to tell them “could be interpreted as collusion or complicity if the situation were ever the subject of an investigation…”

The abuse stopped when Brandon was moved to a private nursing home in 2016. He died in 2018.

The sexual assaults were first reported to An Garda Síochána in 2011 but gardaí said they did not get the follow-up information they required to launch an investigation.

No disciplinary action has been taken yet against any of the HSE employees involved in Brandon’s care.

The HSE said this weekend that a “scoping” exercise to establish whether disciplinary action is required is ongoing and “any decisions on a disciplinary process can only be made once this is completed”. The DPP has already decided not to prosecute HSE staff for allegedly withholding information about sexual abuse.

Following a row over the publication of the Brandon report, the Attorney General advised against the entire document being published.

The HSE has since published an executive summary of the report.

The Disabilities Minister, Anne Rabbitte, has been pushing an independent safeguarding review of disability centres in Donegal, and is working other departments on a terms of reference.