Paramilitary grooming of children ‘a live issue’ during pandemic

Koulla Yiasouma was speaking after the crime was flagged up by the UK’s Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner in her annual report.

Dame Sara Joanne Thornton spoke of meeting with the Organised Crime Task Force and Justice Minister Naomi Long. Among many issues, they discussed “the interventions that had been developed to address the grooming of children by paramilitaries”.

Ms Yiasouma said the issue of paramilitaries preying on NI children has been ongoing during the pandemic.

“Grooming of children by paramilitaries is a live issue and many of the young people affected are often living in very challenging situations particularly during the current pandemic,” she said.

“Many live in fear and/or poverty, experience intimidation, substance abuse or addiction and mental ill health.

“While there have been interventions that have been developed to address the issue, services in youth justice, policing, education, mental health and social care need to be properly resourced and maintained.”

A spokeswoman for the Department of Justice said paramilitaries continue to prey on vulnerable children and adults in their communities.

“We want to work to ensure that people who are vulnerable are provided with the appropriate help and support,” she said.

“The Executive Tackling Paramilitarism Programme has a range of projects and interventions that provide support to young people who are vulnerable to being harmed by paramilitaries.”

In 2016 The Safeguarding Board for NI said of the crime: “Being drawn into violent/extremist behaviour may take the form of a ‘grooming’ process where the vulnerabilities of a child/young person are exploited to form an exclusive friendship which draws the child/young person away from other influences that might challenge the radical ideology.”

The Independent Child Sexual Exploitation Inquiry in NI in 2014 found no evidence that paramilitary groups were corporately targeting children for child sexual exploitation (CSE) but that individual members of terror groups were - and left their victims fearing for their lives.

The inquiry report said: “No-one suggested that CSE [child sexual exploitation] was a targeted activity of paramilitary groups.

“It was a case of individuals using the authority of their paramilitary links and the fear it engendered, to exploit children and young people. The Inquiry was told that there were bars dominated by members of paramilitary groups, where there were lock-ins after hours and sexual exploitation took place. It is important to state that no-one identified names or locations in relation to these events. Some told us that they feared for their lives if they were suspected of having done so. The party house scenario featured highly in discussions with agencies and young people.”

Several individual members of terror groups have been prosecuted for child sexual abuse in NI courts in recent years.

The issue of individual members of loyalist and republican terror groups using their influence to sexuall abusing juvenilles have made many headlines in recent years.

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