Cork Childline volunteers increasingly dealing with children who’ve been sexually abused

The manager of the Cork Childline office has said that they are increasingly dealing with young people who have been sexually abused.

Regina O’Sullivan said education around consent is vital for these children who are often confused about what has happened.

She added that they always see an increase in calls around Christmas: “It can be a really happy time for a lot of people but the extra time can also be difficult for people in homes where there is poverty or abuse.

“There’s a lot of extra alcohol being drank at home and visitors coming into the house.

“We also see a huge increase in young people being sexually assaulted after teenage drinking.

“One Christmas day I spoke with a young girl who had no family problems, was after getting all her gifts, but she told me she had been sexually assaulted a few days previous and felt she couldn’t tell her parents because she had been drinking. We come across a lot of stories like that from both girls and boys.”

Her comments come as Childline by ISPCC has launched its national Christmas appeal, giving examples of several children who have been in touch, whose names have been changed.

This includes Annie, aged 11, who Childline said “is living in a state of constant terror”.

“Her mother, who is actively involved in prostitution, regularly forces her to have sex with multiple men. She gives Annie anti-anxiety medication and brings Annie to hotels where is she raped.”

Another child, Sophie, “was just 13 years of age when she was sexually exploited and blackmailed by criminals she met online, who constantly knew her whereabouts and told her they would kill her parents if she did not do what they said”.

“This included coercing her into creating sexually explicit videos and images.”

Ms O’Sullivan told The Echo that when someone contacts their office with a situation like this: “We always check if they have anyone safe in their lives that they can talk to, and we offer them support. A lot of the time they’re not ready to disclose their details so we can refer it to the gardaí and Tusla.

“Often they just want to share with someone and not feel so alone,” she said, but explained that sometimes people will call back multiple times and eventually feel ready to speak out.

“It can take months of building up trust, because often they still have a loyalty to the person that’s abusing them.”

Ms O’Sullivan added that there is often “a lot of confusion about what’s happening to them”, and that sex education plays a big part in this.

“It’s a very delicate subject. You don’t want to frighten children, but parents have to give permission and some refuse their children access to these classes thinking they’re geared towards trying to confuse them about their sexuality, while in fact it’s about consent.

“A lot of the children that contact Childline about these issues are young children — from the age of 10, 11, 12 — that’s primary school age, so there needs to be education there.”

Ms O’Sullivan added that they are always looking for new volunteers, who are given extensive training on how to help these young people.

She added that donations help to keep the whole programme running, volunteers trained, office open, and phone lines free of charge for those who get in touch.

Visit https://childline.ie/