The United Nations has opened an investigation into claims of child sex abuse by an Irish peacekeeper at an army checkpoint.
Retired soldier Anthony O’Brien raised the issue with the UN’s Vienna-based investigations team which last night said it is reviewing the matter.
Mr O’Brien, a former army sergeant from Ballyfermot in Dublin, met via videolink with the chief of the division last week.
He raised allegations including the sexual abuse of children at Kafra-Yatar checkpoint in the Lebanon by an Irish peacekeeper on UNIFIL duty who showed them pornography.
Mr O’Brien also detailed reports of the alleged rape of a soldier on her first tour of duty overseas and other female troops raped after having their drink spiked.
A UN spokesman told the Irish Sunday Mirror: “We can confirm the Office of Internal Oversight Services [OIOS] has been seized of the matter for appropriate follow-up. The UN will review for appropriate action any report of sexual misconduct that is brought to its attention involving its personnel.”
The full horror of alleged rapes and paedophilia in the Defence Forces was first raised by Mr O’Brien more than a year ago.
He sent reports of sexual abuse by military personnel on military property to Minister for Defence Simon Coveney.
The accounts, some of which allege the abuse of children at the Curragh military camp in Kildare, were sent by the Department of Defence to gardai.
Two weeks ago Sinn Fein TD Patricia Ryan read a number of the allegations into the Dail record.
She said: “There are many sad and sick stories including a female soldier who was raped on her first tour overseas. Her rapist was fined three days’ pay.
“The female soldier was labelled a troublemaker and a slut.
“She attempted suicide a number of times and became an alcoholic.” Deputy Ryan also told the Dail two female soldiers whose drinks were spiked by four soldiers were raped then “put back to bed” while on a tour of duty in the Lebanon.
Last week a serving member of the Defence Forces told RTE those who raised concerns about alleged sexual assaults at a barbecue at McKee Barracks in 2020 were being silenced.
The only people to face charges as a result of the events were a group of soldiers who discussed the allegations in a closed WhatsApp group.
One soldier, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said: “To me, it stinks of attempts to silence people talking about it.”
A spokeswoman for the Department of Defence said it had been in contact with the UN’s Office of Internal Oversight and had been informed that the OIOS “will not be conducting an investigation into the reported allegations”.
