THE Donegal-born Children’s Ombudsman, Dr Niall Muldoon, is calling for alleged domestic abusers to be removed from their homes during policing probes to stop the “moral bankruptcy” of making victims homeless.
Dr Muldoon believes those accused of domestic violence should be treated the same as those accused of sexual abuse and removed from the family home while allegations are investigated.
He said many women and children living in “severe violence” are forced to either stay in an abusive home or face homelessness, which allows abusers to become more violent.
Dr Muldoon’s comments came as it emerged that one third of children are worried about where they are going to live in the future, while 12 per cent are worried about where their family are going to live now.
Dr Muldoon, pictured below, who estimates that 40,000 children in the country are living in temporary or unstable accommodation, said this generation has anxieties about housing never seen before.
Speaking on the 20th anniversary of the Office of the Children’s Ombudsman (OCO), Dr Muldoon accused the government of “failing children”.
“We have failed those children and we now have children who will know nothing except hotels, family hubs, B&Bs – just distressing circumstances to grow up in,” reports the Irish Independent.
Dr Muldoon said he was “troubled” by the number by the women and children who leave refuges and end up homeless or decide to return to the family home and the abuser because the housing crisis has left them with nowhere else to go.
“Legally, we should be in a situation where it shouldn’t be the mother and children to leave, it should be the alleged offender,” said Dr Muldoon.
“That’s the circumstance if someone alleges sexual abuse. The offender would be asked to leave the home.”
He said alleged abusers should be removed “without any suggestion of wrongdoing, without hampering anybody’s rights” because it should be easier to find emergency accommodation for one person than for numerous people.
“We are finding ourselves in a real morally bankrupt situation in which the children who leave, after severe violence in their home and finding that the mother’s decided ‘I’ve given it my best shot, I can’t do anymore. I have to go back’, which hands more power back to the violent offender.”
Dr Muldoon said he had consulted legal experts, who did not see an issue with treating those accused of domestic abuse the same as those accused of sexual abuse.
But, he said no one has ever put it into action.
“It doesn’t seem to happen in domestic violence, and I’m not sure what the rationale is, but it seems very wrong,” he said.
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