'Sex abuse brothers must go' - families to tell Trust chiefs
Relatives of vulnerable patients at Lakeview Hospital say they will accept no less than a pledge to remove two paedophiles from the facility.
Angry family members of the severely disabled young adults are to meet with Western Health and Social Care Trust bosses this morning, following outcry over last week's decision to accommodate Fermanagh brothers James (61) and Owen Roe (52) McDermott at the Gransha facility.
On Wednesday, up to 2,000 people signed a petition in Derry city centre supporting the families' appeal for the sex offenders to relocated from the Brooke Lodge psychiatric unit.
However, the Trust has maintained that the patients - most of whom have extreme difficulty communicating - were subject to "robust safeguarding arrangements".
And health chiefs are expected to uphold their decision to accommodate the McDermott brothers - who also have severe learning difficulties - in the unit.
'Resignations'
Greysteel man Louis McGuinness, whose son Colm (21) is a permanent resident at Brooke Lodge, said such an outcome would not be accepted.
"If we're not told tomorrow that these two men are being moved, then we'll be taking further steps and that could mean calling for resignations. I'm not going down there to negotiate with the Trust, I want these men out and that's it."
Shantallow man Pat Cairns, whose nephew John Doherty (25) is also a resident, added: "If they try to tell us tomorrow that the children are safe, we won't accept it, no way."
Foyle MP Mark Durkan, said the Trust had obligations "that constrain their position".
"They have a duty of care, including to the two brothers. However, the concern of the families I have been talking to is perhaps that the Trust is more preoccupied with their duty of care to these two brothers, and are not showing enough duty of care to their relatives and need to show more of a duty of consideration to the families and their concerns."
The McDermott brothers were last month declared mentally unfit to stand trial on 19 counts of child sex abuse, spanning 30 years.
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Sunday 12 February 2012
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