By Ursula Duddy
Derry’s resident District Judge has criticized self-styled ‘paedophile hunters’ for seeking ‘publicity and glory’.
District Judge of Derry’s Magistrates Court, Barney McElholm, castigated self-appointed paedophile groups who he said can actually hamper justice being served and paramilitary groups who he dubbed ‘child abusers’ for shooting teenagers.
Judge McElholm spoke about a number of issues facing the city in the second part of an in-depth interview with the Derry News.
He has been in Derry as resident District Judge in Derry for 15 years now and has seen much over his time here change – some for better, some for worse.
He elaborated on what had improved in society, what had deteriorated and discussed the biggest challenges facing Derry.
“It can be hard to think of positives but I think one is that people are more aware of things,” he said.
“Things are better than they were in the sense that the message is getting out that there is help. People are more educated and people have less inclination to hide things.
“When I first came here policing and justice was still with Westminster, Sinn Féin had not endorsed co-operating with the police but that has changed quite a bit because, for things like domestic violence, they’re brought more to the fore now.
“People are going to the police and reporting things and things are being dealt with in a proper fashion. In the past, the people that things were being reported to were certainly not geared up to deal with that type of thing so things largely went unreported. So, I think people are getting more educated about what help is out there. People are more open in general now and we live in a more open society.
“Violence has gotten much worse over the years. When I was 16 or 17 and starting to go out, initially you would have seen fist fight and two boys might have a go at each other and when one man went down, if he stayed down, the other guy would turn and walk away.
“Then, what I noticed, was this tendency of other ‘heroes’ who were standing spectating to come in and kick the guy on the ground in this sort of ‘boot boy’ philosophy, and that started it.
“There was no such thing as dropping concrete blocks on people’s heads, and the amount of knives that are being carried these days is a big problem.
“There is a tendency to use weapons – not guns, we are not there just yet, but knives or maybe using a bottle or picking up a heavy object. Or the other thing is actually jumping on people’s head, putting somebody’s head against a kerb and actually jumping on it.
“It’s absolutely sickening and I don’t know how someone could do that to another human being.”
Judge McElholm said that he abhors violence of all kinds: “I’m totally opposed to violence of any type by anyone. If you’re a perpetrator of violence for whatever reason, it demeans and dehumanises you firstly, and that’s leaving aside the effect of violence on the victim, but there’s no justification for violence ever.”
Judge McElholm said that he believes in peaceful objection and criticised those who condemn civil disobedience as a method of protest.
“I would be a great advocate of peaceful resistance and I thought it was quite disgraceful the other day when somebody talked about acts of civil disobedience; civil disobedience is a fundamental right. Okay, you may infringe certain laws about illegal assemblies and things like that, but I think every citizen has the right to protest if they feel that they or groups of people are not being treated fairly.
“That’s one thing, Ghandi exemplified that kind of thing, but actually using violence, even if violence is perpetrated against you, I don’t believe there should be any reaction because I think that demeans you, dehumanises you and undermines any right you have. If you use violence then you have lost, you’re admitting your cause is not a good one.”
Solving Derry’s on-street drinking problem
Judge McElholm said that Derry is a city with a lot to offer tourists but that this can sometime be marred by the on-street drinking here that he describes as one of the worst he’s ever seen in Europe.
He said that he believes there are ways society could work with on-street drinkers to take them off the streets and promote a better image of the city.
“I know the city fathers, and mothers of course, are concerned about on-street drinking and anti-social behaviour,” he said.
“The city here has tremendous attraction for tourism, we see the coaches here all the time outside the court, but you actually feel ashamed and embarrassed sometimes about some of the things they witness.
“The street drinkers, a lot of them don’t actually ever appear in front of me, because they keep themselves to themselves and they try to keep a low profile.
“Occasionally they will get into a row with each other and the police will be called and they might get into a row with the police and some of them tend to be more irascible than others. Some of them do cause bother but others I would never see.
“I just wish they had somewhere to go indoors and not be drinking in the streets because it’s not good for visitors to the city. If they do start to behave badly and they become aggressive towards tourists, that’s not helping the city here. I’ve travelled to many cities in Europe and I don’t think I’ve ever seen the level of street drinking we have here.
“People have their problems but not every addict is a problem, they have their problems, they like their drink but I just wish we could set up a wet hostel where they could, providing they behave themselves in there, take that problem away from the streets. Like a drop-in centre where they could bring their own drink, congregate, drink and respect the place and somewhere where they would be warm and dry.
“I wouldn’t go hot and heavy with street drinkers, I know there are cities where they are pushed to the margins and driven away because they are not allowed to congregate and they are quite forcefully pushed away.
“I wouldn’t like to see that. We’re all human beings and everybody has their problems but if we could assist them by giving them somewhere a lot more comfortable because I don’t think you’re going to change people but you could cure the on-street problem, it’s just how you deal with it.”
Vigilante criticism
Judge McElholm also slammed vigilante groups, both paramilitary and self-professed ‘paedophile hunters’, saying that neither group can deliver justice.
“I firmly believe there’s only room for one criminal justice system and I think anything else undermines the rule of law,” he said.
"As for the paramilitaries, they are abusing children. Shooting a 15-year-old; I don’t know how they justify that to themselves, how could anyone justify that or seek to justify that. It is child abuse.
“Who ever gave them the right to set themselves up as judge, jury and executioner?
“It’s just completely anathema to my beliefs and I’m not saying that our system is perfect, no democracy is perfect, democracy is just the best model we have come up with for society but it’s not perfect by any means.
“I’m not saying we ever make mistakes, I’m sure we do and it’s been shown we do, but we can put them right through a process of appeals but we don’t abuse children and we don’t inflict violence on other people. We may deprive them of their liberty and sometimes I accept we get that wrong when evidence is given in cases where people are believed and it turns out later they shouldn’t have been believed but I think in the bulk of cases, we get it right. It’s not totally perfect but at least what we do, we do with some integrity and respect for our fellow human beings. Beating up children and shooting people...no.
“As for the ‘paedophile hunters’, if they want to do this why don’t they go to the police and say, ‘Look, I’m prepared to work for you on a voluntary basis and do this and turn all the evidence over to you and let you then take it from there and arrest the person concerned, charge them and prosecute them’.
“But these people seem to want the publicity and glory; they film everything and it’s not just for evidence, it’s to record what they’re doing. And a lot of the time what they’re doing would be infringing certain fundamental laws and rights in relation to evidence gathering.
“They’re doing things the police wouldn’t do but that’s because the police are bound by certain laws and regulations in order to protect the innocent. Because if they home in on someone and they think this person is a potential paedophile or would groom a child, maybe they’ve got it wrong, maybe they’re not and maybe you’re going to ruin that person’s life and have them driven out of their community when maybe that’s not what they’re doing.
“There has to be checks and balances in the criminal justice system to ensure that the innocent are not targeted and punished and these vigilantes don’t adhere to any rules. They publish these videos without reference to any real proper investigation or any opportunity for someone to answer them.
“If it hasn’t happened already, it will happen that they will target some innocent person and maybe that person will harm themselves, they may be attacked by others in the community and what are they going to do then?
“The reason we have a legal system is to protect the rights of everyone. Sometimes the guilty can go free because of a technicality and we don’t like that to happen but it’s better that happens than an innocent person have their lives ruined.”
High points and low points
As with any job, being a judge has its high and low points. Judge McElholm shared the most rewarding part of his job and the most disheartening.
“The most satisfying thing is where, particularly with a young person, they have been before me on a number of occasions and you can see things starting to get worse, then you do something like referring them to Youth Justice Agency and they get involved with someone they really click with and you start seeing less of them and then you stop seeing them altogether.
“The next thing you hear is that they’ve settled down and maybe met somebody and started a new life and you never see them again.
“I remember there was a couple of lads, it was years and years ago...the Loughs Agency, or its predecessor, had set up a scheme where young people could be sent from the court on to the tributaries up the Faughan and Foyle in both Donegal and this side of the border, taking out rubbish that had been dumped in there and then restocking it with invertebrate life then introducing trout and salmon.
“It was part of a scheme to improve the natural rivers and create better fishing to attract tourists. I didn’t know and only found out years later that my brother had been involved in help setting it up. He consulted in game and fishing, restocking the rivers for tourists, because the Germans and Swiss and Austrians pay a fortune to come over here and hunt and fish; I know some people are opposed to that sort of thing but it is a legitimate pastime for some.
“But we sent them a couple of young lads who I saw every day for a week and they, many years later, are still in full-time work.
“They stopped getting into trouble; these were guys who had been running the streets all night and sleeping all day, then they started getting up at 6am with a pair of waders on and in the coldest of days went out into the rivers and hauled rubbish out. Then once they got the rivers clean, restocked it and they got so interested in it, even when their time was up, they stayed on as volunteers.
“Then they were encouraged to apply for part-time jobs when they came up and got them and then they applied for full-time. Now, that is success.
“I was going to say I don’t take any pleasure in jailing people but the violent guys, yes, I do, because taking them off the streets does give me pleasure. But nothing gave me as much satisfaction as those two guys.
“There are other instances over the years where someone who was always in trouble turned a corner. Now, in a lot of cases, you might not have had that much to do with it, you might have put them onto a probation order or under community service and, just by chance, they run into someone they admire and they think, ‘I would rather have their life than my life’.
“Then they use that person as an example and think, ‘If I just apply myself, I can do this too and I can have that sort of life’.
“That gives me enormous satisfaction when I hear that sort of thing.”
Flip-side
However, in an insight into Judge McElholm’s compassionate side, he said there is a dark flip-side to his job that leaves him sometimes asking if he could have done something more to help those who went on a self-destructive path.
“Sometimes when I ask how someone is doing and hear they have settled down it’s great but the converse of that is where you ask about someone else and you’re told, ‘I found him dead one day’ or you do hear from time to time you hear about someone going into the river and you go, ‘Oh no, I knew that lad’.
“I remember one lad who had various difficulties and mental health issues and he wasn’t a bad fella. He wasn’t bad, he had his problems and I think he had mental problems that were not just addiction related. I think he was born with problems.
“He just couldn’t cope and one day decided, ‘I’ve had enough’ and that’s very sad. You think, ‘Could I have done more for that lad? Could I have put him in touch with somebody?’
“Quite often in the court what you’re trying to do is put a young person onto probation services so they’ll get up the queue, and they’ll get the help they need rather than languishing on a waiting list for a year or two and then they quite rightly develop the feeling that nobody cares and start thinking, ‘What’s for me in this life?’ and, again, it’s lack of resources.”
A word of advice
Finally, Judge McElholm had a word of advice for those thinking of committing crimes.
“I would say stop and think,” he said.
“Think about the victim, think about who is going to suffer as a result of what you’re about to do and then think of yourself as well and think where you are going to end up.
“Because the biggest bulk of them are caught and there are very few Dr Moriarty's or arch-criminals out there, they generally get caught there and then and it’s their own life they’re ruining.
“For example, some young lad here who goes out to a nicer part of town and burgles a house and steals someone’s jewellery and they think, ‘Ah, they’re rich, they’ll be insured’ – but they could be stealing someone’s mother’s engagement ring that was left to them or maybe their granny’s favourite broach, something that means so much more than the actual monetary value.
“They could be stealing a load of memories and it’s that sort of consequence that they don’t think about at all. I’ve heard people say to the police or the probation officers, ‘Sure, they’re insured, what do they care – sure they’ll claim back twice what I took and they’ll make a big killing and get a nice holiday out of it and they’ll go out and buy some fresh jewellery and it’ll be nicer than the stuff they had and I’ll get a few pound for it too so everybody wins.
“But that’s not the way it works, you’re stealing somebody’s memories. Stop and think. People have a great capacity for justifying things to themselves. If you start to argue with them about why it’s wrong, philosophically, to steal, they’re maybe going to say to you, ‘But look at me, I never had anything, I never was going to have anything, I never had a chance from the day I was born – why shouldn’t I have the nicer things in life?’ I’ve seen that argument put up.
“To an extent, society colludes in that because all the ads show everybody having a lovely, happy, luxurious life and if you’re born in a sink estate and your parents don’t attend to your education, and there are parents out there that don’t, you have no chance.
“I wasn’t born into wealth. My parents both had ordinary jobs, we didn’t have a lot of money but what we did have was parents who encouraged us to pursue education. They supported us and they disciplined us where necessary. In our house you didn’t wake up and say, ‘I’m not feeling great, Mammy, I don’t want to go to school’, you got told, ‘Out!’
“You literally had to be expiring on the floor or that sick you had to get the doctor called that was alright but if you were the walking wounded, then you walked!
“I think parenting is very, very important if we are ever going to cut crime back and cut anti-social behaviour back. I think some generation is going to have to say the future isn’t going to be the way it was in the past.”
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