McDermott brothers are 'victims too'

Editorial Department • Published 29 Jul 2010 16:00

Paedophile brothers James and Owen Roe McDermott stepped from one controversy into another this week.

Amid the sustained outrage of their neighbours they left their home in the village of Donagh where they sexually abused children for 30 years and voluntarily admitted themselves to the psychiatric ward of the Lakeview Hospital in Derry.

That brought screams of protest from the families of other patients and left the residents of Donagh fearing the brothers would return.

The McDermott brothers were allowed to return to Donagh in June after they were declared mentally unfit to stand trial at Omagh Crown Court. However, the jury found that they had sexually abused children in the manner described in the charges.

Survivors of the abuse welcomed their move to the psychiatric unit but said it would not solve the problem in the long-term.

Parents of the vulnerable adults who are patients on the same ward met in Derry on Monday night and said they were considering a sit-in at the hospital if the brothers were not moved away.

But the hospital managers at the Western Health and Social Care Trust have moved to reassure them that strong and adequate protection measures are in place.

Trevor Millar, Director of Adult Mental Health and Disability Services, said: "The Trust assesses and manages safety and, where necessary, implements robust safeguarding measures to ensure the protection of all children and vulnerable adults in its care."

However, Rory Love, from Coa, Ballinamallard, whose sister Mary is on the same ward, said he was very concerned for her safety.

"We were informed just last week that situations such as this had arisen on the ward before," he said. "It was the first we'd ever heard that paedophiles had been kept on the ward, which is a real concern for myself, as a brother, that it's happened.

"It is not just a matter of removing the McDermott brothers, but also making sure that the situation doesn't arise again," he added.

"I was always under the pretence that my sister was in good hands and she was safe at night, or at any time for that matter, from any sort of abuse. But this is a real concern for me," stated Mr. Love.

In a statement the Western Trust said it planned to meet the families to discuss the situation.

Meanwhile a neighbour of Mr. Love has criticised the way in which the McDermott brothers have been treated.

Eric Geddes, from Ballinamallard, and his wife Jill have four sons with learning disabilities.

Mr. Geddes admitted he did not have an answer to the problem but said: "There's so much in this that has irked me. It is close to the heart.

"What these men did was clearly wrong," he stressed.

However, he believes they are mentally disabled and might have been mimicking the behaviour of others.

During their court case His Honour Judge David McFarland said they grew up in a family where there was a highly deviant culture of sexually abusing children and apparently little moral guidance or structure.

Mr. Geddes contrasted that with the round-the-clock loving and caring attention given to his own children by "educated, middle-class parents". He said there should be a recognition that the McDermott brothers are vulnerable and need help and that they are also victims.

He stressed that he did not want to take away from the "unimaginable suffering" of their victims but said the brothers were also victims.

He said one only had to look at the television pictures of the brothers arriving at Omagh Court to see that while in some ways they appeared normal there was an "innocent gullibility" about them.

"They haven't been tried by a court but they're being tried by a combination of the media and public outrage," he suggested.

"The last thing I would want would be to have guys like that living beside our boys," he admitted.

"I would be horrified if something happened to our boys. They don't have the capacity to defend themselves," he added.

"But as a civilised society do we not make allowances for those who are mentally incapacitated?" he asked.

"Is it right to hound people who are mentally vulnerable and threaten them and hold them to the same account as those who are not? These are hard questions that have to be asked.

"I think what is happening here is a knee jerk reaction. There's a hostility there that's not rational," he added.

Mr. Geddes suggested some of that might be born of shame of people who knew about the abuse and did nothing to stop it.

He referred to a third brother, Peter Paul McDermott, who hanged himself after the first day of his trial at Enniskillen Crown Court on charges of sexually abusing two young boys.

"One was obviously of a fragile state of mind and took his own life. If this pressure is kept up on these two guys are they going to do what the other brother did and is that going to satisfy the baying mob," asked Mr. Geddes.

"They need to be under supervision. They need help," he stated.

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This article appeared in Impartial Reporter 29 Jul 10

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