A Sligo/Leitrim TD is asking that the Juvenile Diversion Programme not be used in cases of serious sexual assault involving young people.
Sinn Fein Martin Kenny told the Dail of how three boys were only cautioned under the programme after an alleged sexual assault of a young girl at a teenage disco.
He was speaking in the Dail during a debate on juvenile crime and how a recent review highlighted that serious crimes went unpunished because of problems with a youth referral scheme in An Garda Siochana.
The original aim of the Juvenile Diversion Programme was to prevent young offenders becoming part of the full criminal justice system.
But speaking in the Dail, Deputy Kenny told of how he had been contacted by a mother about a serious sexual assault on her daughter.
The incident destroyed the young girl’s life but when it came to the boys who assaulted her, everything seemed fine in their lives.
He felt a caution for the alleged perpetrators under the Juvenile Diversion Programme was not an appropriate way for such a serious incident to have been dealt with.
He told the Dail how the girl had travelled to the disco with her friends on a bus, some of whom had been drinking.
Deputy Kenny said such serious incidents, particularly sexual assault cases involving juveniles, need to be treated differently.
And he added such cases were not isolated in the way alleged perpetrators are dealt with.
