|
|
Allegations
of Sexual Abuse in NZ |
|
Child sex abuse is a
horrible crime and one that happens far too often. Child, Youth and Family
has the tough job of investigating the cases - sorting out the fact from the
fiction. One Auckland family
knows all too well what CYF has to do after they became the innocent victim
of a false claim of sexual abuse. For 24 hours they had to live with the
claim that the father had abused his three-year-old daughter. John* and Anna*, who
have two children, say it was a horrible time and they are upset about the
way CYF presumed the father was guilty even though there was no evidence
against him. Anna says the Takapuna
office of CYF said they had reason to believe their daughter was in an unsafe
environment. She says she was
flabbergasted. John phoned the CYF
manager. After some prodding he was told he was under investigation for
sexually abusing his three-year-old daughter, but he wasn't getting answers
from CYF. "We were trying to
get to the nitty gritty of finding out exactly what was observed and what
they had a specific concern about and basically he just couldn't answer
it," John told Close Up. The family went down to
the CYF office and John was interviewed for about 30 minutes. The accusations didn't
stop with the sexual abuse, he was also questioned about whether he had an
alcohol problem. The children were
interviewed without their parents present and it was after that John was cleared. The child psychiatrist
said there was absolutely nothing wrong, the kids were perfect and she was
sorry to have put them through the process. John says that was the
most dramatic thing. "The way the tone
changed from one of you're guilty explain yourself, to the child psychiatrist
coming back in to the office and the attitude changing dramatically,"
says John. Just days after the
interview with Close Up the family got hold of the CYF files and found out
that letters had been sent to local schools about the case, before CYF had
even spoken to the family. The children were named
in the letters. CYF also spoke to the
police. A week on the family is
still reeling from the experience and wondering who pointed the finger. CYF is not allowed to
release any names. John and Anna say the
point of going public is that they believe CYF needs to tighten up their
procedures. "They've just
taken a phone call over their 0800 nationwide telephone number and to accuse
someone of such a major thing as sexual abuse, is absolutely mind
blowing," says Anna. The chief social worker
with CYF, Marie Connolly is defending the letter sent to the schools before
the family was spoken to. She says CYF would have
checked with the schools to find out where the child was attending school. But if CYF had done
some basic homework they would have known the child was only
three-year's-old. "Judgements are
made about whether to proceed with an investigation and in this case it was
decided the allegations needed to be investigated," Connolly says. She says it is
inevitably difficult for families when a social worker investigates a sexual
abuse allegation, but their concern is primarily with the safety of the child
and it would be irresponsible not to investigate. The family are not
happy with CYF response and are not giving up on this case. They are taking
their concerns to the Privacy Commissioner and to the Ombudsman. *The names of the family have been changed. |
