A report by the National Independent Review Panel (NIRP), which has been seen by RTÉ News, paints a depressing and sobering picture of apparent failures with regard to the sexual abuse of residents of a nursing home in Kildare.
Although RTÉ’s reporting does not name the nursing home or the nursing assistant who was convicted of offences against one of the victims, he was one Emmanuel Adeniji who was sentenced to 11 years, with the final year suspended, in July 2020.
According to the Sunday World, Adeniji “entered the country illegally” in 2000 from Nigeria, having failed to produce valid documentation. He later made an application for asylum, claiming that he had been the victim of religious persecution.
That claim was not fully investigated nor any decision made because in the interim Adeniji was granted residency on the basis of a claim to be the father of a child born in Ireland. He was made an Irish citizen in 2012.
The NIRP report was announced in February 2022, an indication that it was believed that there had been “serious failings” surrounding the handling of the case against Adeniji by the Health Service Executive (HSE), arising from what was described as the possibility that those failures may have had contributed to “significant harm or compromised the quality of life of those concerned.”
The media report of what is contained in findings would suggest that this is very much an understatement of the horrific abuse that took place, not only of the woman whose rape led to Adeniji’s conviction, but of another nine women who alleged that Adeniji had sexually and physically abused them, and another two residents who alleged that they had been physically abused by Adeniji.
It was only when a Safety and Protection Review Team followed up on ‘Emily’s’ allegations that they uncovered evidence of previous allegations, none of which, according to the SPRT, had been properly investigated according to the normal HSE procedures. The Garda response was that no further prosecutions were likely given that the other victims were either dead or incapable of assisting in an investigation.
Which leads to the chilling conclusion that had ‘Emily’, who died in 2021, not lived until the trial in July 2020, this creature might never have been charged and convicted. It might even be the case that people – who for whatever reason failed to properly investigate the allegations against Adeniji – would still be happy to work alongside their colleague.
“It is recorded on the file of one resident, (now deceased) that she had informed a carer that she was ‘raped’ and that ‘no one believes me’.”
A number of other residents also alleged to staff that they were “raped and assaulted” but these complaints, according to the NIRP, appear to have been ascribed to clinical causes such as delusions, hallucinations, delirium, confusion or urinary tract infections.
It needs to be asked what consequences will be faced by those in authority in the home for their failure to properly investigate complaints of the most serious nature.
According to the report quoted by RTÉ: “Emily’s actions and sacrifice undoubtedly helped convict her rapist and saved other vulnerable women from his predatory behaviour.”
Indeed, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that, had it not been for ‘Emily’s’ bravery, Adeniji’s monstrous abuse of his position would never have been exposed.
This, according to the NIRP report, is because previous complaints against the Nigerian nursing assistant had either not been believed or had not been fully acted on. The complaints included claims that the victims had been raped, but these were seemingly dismissed on the basis that the elderly women may have been suffering from dementia, or hallucinations or urinary tract infections.
One has to ask why there was such a “culture of disbelief”? People are also entitled to demand that any future inquiry should examine whether a failure to fully investigate a man against whom multiple allegations of rape had been made was the consequence of the bizarre racialism that impeded investigations into mass sexual abuse of children in Britain.
An inquiry ought to also perhaps examine the thoroughness of the vetting procedure that proceeded Adeniji’s employment by the nursing home. What we know of his having managed to establish himself as an Irish citizen merely highlights again the ridiculous ease with which even people whose claims for asylum were never verified can become “Irish.”
The apology on behalf of the HSE is simply not good enough. Nor is this morning’s expression of regret and promises of respect and support for the relatives of Adeniji’s victims from Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee.
It is too late for the victims whose final days were spent in a nursing home where they were prevented from meeting with their own families – under the care of a man who had come to Ireland illegally, and who had been allowed to likely ensure that the last days of elderly Irish women were spent in a living hell.
But it is not too late for the Irish state through all of its agencies to begin to take seriously the consequences of their incompetence that facilitates such people taking advantage of the most vulnerable of Irish citizens. These are the people whose protection ought to come first for any sovereign state worthy of the name.