Tuesday, 19 Mar 2024

Sex abuse of women is at the centre of gang culture

When Pio Smith was asked to help a young woman who had run up a drug debt to dealers, he encountered a familiar story of an impressionable youngster drawn into the growing drug culture and who fast became in over her head.

Buried in her story of addiction and intimidation was another damaging account of dealers’ demands for sex to settle her debt.

In the past two weeks we have seen the real and horrific extent that the feuding drug gangs in Dublin and Louth are willing to go in their continuing bloody war. They think nothing of kidnapping a 17-year-old, torturing him, and then dismembering him in order to intimidate their rivals. But there are other extremely concerning punishments being handed out.

Wrapped up in the Drogheda feuding drugs gangs is a story of sexual exploitation and abuse of young women that is rarely heard, according to Smith, a counsellor with Red Door and also a Labour Party councillor.

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Smith said he has direct knowledge of three young women who were sexually exploited by dealers, while the local rape crisis network says that cases referred to Drogheda counsellors have become more “challenging” and “traumatic” in nature in recent months.

According to Smith, the abuse is an under-the-radar side-effect of the murderous macho gang culture that has gripped the town in recent years.

“In the small number of cases that I’ve seen, and talking to young people who have run up debt, that debt was either reduced or paid off because they engaged in sexual activity with some of the people who were supplying them,” he said.

“In one sense it was a very direct transaction – and this is the experience that I have had with young people, there has been a very direct transaction: I will eliminate your debt if you have sex, or come to party or engage in these sexual acts.

“The other was a more subtle approach, where some dealers will actually try and befriend women who are in addiction – as if to say, we’re here to help out. But the ‘help’ involves having sex with the dealer.

“It is the same thing – sexual exploitation. One is more brutal, one is more subtle, but both are ugly.”

According to Grace McArdle, director of Rape Crisis North East, the cases emerging in the county in recent months are more troubling.

“It is a small community. I am afraid to say any more,” she said. “What I can say is that we have found that counsellors in that area are dealing with more traumatic cases and more difficult cases in the last few months. More younger people are coming to us and the types of cases are very heavy and are very challenging for counsellors.”

Gardai say women in their teens to early 20s are involved on either side of the Drogheda feud but they are unaware of any complaints of feud-related sex crimes. There is no scientific evidence and even anecdotal evidence is sparse.

But sex crimes perpetrated by gangsters against drug addicts or young runners of any gender are unlikely to be reported to gardai, according to Pio Smith.

In a town of 41,000 people, where two warring drugs gangs have weaponised children into foot soldiers, petrol bombed their parents and caused 17-year-old Keane Mulready-Woods to be dismembered, fear has silenced much of the community.

“The horror of it is, if you have someone who is in addiction, and who is also being sexually abused, it is likely they are not going to report it to the guards, or to the Rape Crisis centres or anyone else: it’s almost going to be blotted out,” he said.

“I just think it is a feature of addiction and gang life across Ireland. I don’t think it is unique to Drogheda. It is not openly talked about, but it is real, it does happen. It would be a mistake to think it doesn’t.”

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