Calls For Combined Justice And Health Summit Over Donagh Brothers Abuse Case

Continuing controversy over the return of two pervert brothers into the community they are said to have abused has led to further developments today.

Sinn Féin's Deputy Chair of the Health Committee Michelle O'Neill has proposed that a joint sitting of the Health and Justice Committees takes place to discuss outstanding questions around the return of the McDermott Brothers to the village of Donagh.

The move came as it emerged that the office of the most senior judge in NI wrote to the Stormont Justice Minister to clarify the judgement made in the Donagh child sex abuse scandal.

There has been controversy over how two brothers who abused children for 30 years were allowed to return home.

The BBC has learned that the Lord Chief Justice said the trial judge ruled that James and Owen Roe McDermott should live at home, after a recommendation by health professionals.

It was a highly unusual move for the senior legal figure to clarify a judge's ruling.

The letter revealed that the judge who heard the case asked professionals from the Western Health Trust for their advice on where best to place the brothers before he passed judgement.

The letter explains that the judge took evidence specifically on the point that the men would stay at their house in the County Fermanagh village of Donagh.

Now, following the continued unease on the issue, Ms O'Neill - as Deputy Chair of the Health Committee - said: "I proposed the joint sitting after it was revealed that the Lord Chief Justice had written to the Justice Minister David Ford.

"A number of serious questions around the judgement in this case remain unanswered, even after several weeks of two scrutiny committees, Health and Justice, having sought answers on behalf of the victims and survivors," she said.

"The Chairs and Deputy Chairs of both committees will be coming together to discuss this matter.

"We must ensure that the victims and survivors of abuse in Donagh are central to all of this and that we learn the lessons in order to prevent a repeat of this type of incident in the future."

Also today, the DUP Chairman of the Assembly Justice Committee, Lord Morrow, has refuted claims made by the Western Health & Social Care Trust over the permitting of the McDermott brothers to return to their Donagh home: "This is becoming a search to find someone on whom to label blame. Last week the Justice Committee were told, after much questioning, that an administrative error was behind the problem.

"Less than an hour after that the Justice Minister changed the wording of the proffered explanation. Clearly no-one knew what exactly was going on," he fumed, this afternoon.

He said that it is now clear these men came under the remit of Social Services through the Western Trust: "A named supervising officer was, under the terms of the Order, to decide where these men were to reside," he continued.

"We now hear the Trust is claiming they had the power to approve or disapprove of accommodation but had no authority to 'move' the McDermott brothers.

"Firstly what is the point in being able to approve or disapprove a situation laid down by Court Order, but being unable to enforce it?

"Secondly, why were these men permitted to return at all after appearing in Court? Having been involved in the assessment of these men for judgment, Social Services must have known the way this case was heading and should have taken steps to ensure approved accommodation was on standby," he said.

"I utterly refute the Western Trust's claims and I do not believe enough was done in advance.

"James and Owen Roe McDermott were deemed unfit to stand trial, but they were also deemed to pose a risk.

"As vulnerable adults they fall into the remit of Social Services. Also within this remit is the protection of children and indeed victims, in the immediate vicinity of these men. This was grossly in default," he concluded.

(BMcC/KMcA)