Debate contribution: Troubles-related Sexual Crimes and Child Sexual Abuse

Debate contribution by Mr Timothy Gaston on 17 February 2026.

MLA

Mr Timothy Gaston

Party at the time

Traditional Unionist Voice

Date

17 February 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Troubles-related Sexual Crimes and Child Sexual Abuse

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5395038

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Absolutely, Mr Deputy Speaker. That is what I am getting to. I will give a sample of the questions that I asked of the First Minister. I asked her whether she wanted to take the opportunity to apologise to Máiría Cahill. That brings us directly back to the motion that we are talking about today. Here we are, discussing a motion on Troubles-related sexual crimes and child abuse that calls for action from the First Minister and deputy First Minister. I do not quibble with that, nor do I take exception to or question the right of the UUP to bring the matter before the House, given that it had the good sense to oppose the sanction that was imposed on me. However, in light of what we have heard from Alliance and the SDLP during the debate, I have to call out the hypocrisy: not so long ago, those Members were happy to ban me from the Chamber for two days on the basis of a report that said that I had disrupted —

— the work —.

It is indeed.

Thank you very much, Deputy Speaker. Indeed, that is where I want to centre my remarks, but I could not let it go past that those were the questions that I was trying to raise, yet I was ruled out of order. I want to make some comments about the substance of the motion. The most notorious case of sexual abuse linked to the IRA is that of Máiría Cahill, yet the motion excludes some of her case because it links investigations into sexual violence with the Legacy Commission. The commission has a cut-off date of 1998. Anyone who is familiar with Máiría's case will know that, while the abuse took place during the time that the commission deals with, the subsequent IRA investigation took place between 1999 and 2000. If anybody wants to know what Máiría thought of today's debate, all that you have to do is look at X. In response to Linda Dillon's comments, Máiría tweeted:

"During a motion on sexual abuse of children during the troubles, Sinn Féin has equated prison strip searching to child rape. What an insult to actual victims."

Máiría was in contact prior to the debate to say that the motion leaves a degree of ambiguity about whether victims of sexual crime linked to terror should go to the PSNI. I welcome Mr Beattie's comments, encouraging all victims to use the justice system and report abuse to the PSNI. I also want to be clear that victims should go to the PSNI, not just to the legacy body, about abuse and that the IRA's activity did not stop in 1998. As I draw my remarks to a close, I will say that the House needs to get its own structures in order. During the debate on my sanction, I pointed out that Máiría Cahill was mentioned in the report. I have mentioned previously that neither the commissioner nor the Standards and Privileges Committee thought to mention to the victim that she would be named —

— in that report. We have to take on board our own advice. If we are to be victim-centred, we need to think of victims at every step in the process.

546 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 14:52 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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