Irish Examiner
February 6 2002
Falsely accused families seek inquiry
by Evelyn Ring
Nothing
short of a full public statutory inquiry will satisfy the families falsely
accused of child sex abuse who insist the State must be held accountable. Eddie
Hernon of VOCAL
Mr Hernon said he got closure from the Medical
Council's decision to censure Dr Woods, but felt the State must be held
accountable for her actions. "People like me were put through a mangle and
left like that. Its outrageous." Liam Ó Gogáin, chairperson of Parental Equality, is now leading
the campaign for the statutory inquiry. "Openness and truth is what we
want. The facts are good enough," he said.
Mr Ó Gogáin knew Mr Hernon
for 10 years and admired how, with very little resources, he took on the might
of the Medical Council to try and get justice for all of the families involved.
"That man spent the last 16 years on disability benefit and living as a
vilified person in the community. He is an obsessed man because no one could
survive that without being obsessed."
The tribunal they want would be along the lines of the Lindsay Tribunal that
investigated how haemophiliacs contracted HIV and hepatitis C from infected
blood products. "Dr Woods carried out 600 evaluations in one year and that
level of productivity defies all sorts of logic," said Mr Ó Gogáin.
Parental Equality, which has been campaigning since 1992 for equal treatment
for fathers and mothers, particularly in relation to shared parenting and joint
custody, said it had received a phenomenal number of calls from fathers who
said they had allegations of false sexual abuse made against them. Mr Ó Gogáin said some were even threatened with an allegation of
abuse if they continued to try and develop a relationship with their children.
Mr Ó Gogáin said it was only by having a public
statutory inquiry that the veil of secrecy from the in-camera courts would be
lifted. "The families involved are so destroyed they cannot get back
together again because the memory will haunt them forever."
He intended to release a CD within the next four to six weeks outlining the
child abuse controversy and those involved. Copies of the CD will be sent to
various statutory bodies, including the Medical Council and health care professionals.
"The Medical Council spent more than €952,000 on a five-year investigation
into the conduct of Dr Woods, a fraction of that money is what we need to tell
the truth."