Reported stoning of home preceded Gransha move

Trust chief Elaine Way last week told the Stormont Health Committee the body could not legally force the McDermott brothers - currently receiving treatment at Gransha - to move from Donagh where they are accused of having committed a litany of sexual offences against children.

She also said a self-imposed period of media silence over the furore surrounding James (61) and Owen Roe McDermott (52) had been in deference to the Health Committee whom she wanted to brief before making any public statements on the matter.

Ms Way admitted to the committee that a clerical office error was made in relation to a Supervision and Treatment Order (STO) applied to the brothers at the climax of a high profile court case but this in no way affected the return of the McDermott's to Donagh.

The Trust, she advised, can approve or disapprove an address, but it does not have the power to determine where the defendants should live.

Thus the Trust was unable to alter the court's intention that the brothers would return to Donagh.

Anger was originally sparked amongst the McDermotts' victims in Donagh when a judge - ruling the brothers unfit to plead - imposed a supervision and treatment order that saw them return to the scene of their abuse.

Ms Way told the Health Committee the McDermotts' house was allegedly stoned and members of the McDermott family came under verbal attack from members of the "hurt and distressed" Donagh community before the Trust negotiated voluntary admission to Gransha.

She told the Committee: "Community disquiet grew when the men returned home, and an allegation was made by the family that there had been a stone-throwing incident at their home.

"The trust then required the men to move, first to Lakeview, a hospital in Derry for people with learning disabilities, and then to Muckamore. Again, we received clear legal advice that that was not within our powers. We cannot require people to move."

She described a public meeting in Fermanagh on July 19 when there was generated an "awful lot of pain and heat" and some people in the community wanted the trust to physically remove the McDermotts from the village.

"We made clear to them the restrictions on our powers. We did not have that legal authority, and, therefore, to try to do so would have been unlawful. Members of the McDermott family were also present at that meeting.

"There was a great deal of anger in the room. Many members of the community shouted at the family and so on. Political representatives, in particular, argued that the community needed some space," she explained.

The Trust then entered into negotiations with the McDermott family to facilitate a voluntary admission to Lakeview Hospital in Gransha.

"Following that public meeting, trust officers, including the supervising officer, worked very closely with the McDermott family. After the process of discussion with them and their solicitors, the brothers voluntarily admitted themselves to Lakeview Hospital on July 22, 2010," she told members.

This development sparked further public ire in the North West with relatives outraged when the paedophiles were admitted to a ward populated by vulnerable patients, some of whom had mental ages of four or five.

But this was subsequently resolved with the McDermott brothers' removal to a separate ward. Ms Way dispelled speculation the brothers had been moved to Muckamore advising they were still undergoing treatment at Gransha.

"They have not moved. We had originally said that we thought that they should go to Lakeview and then move on to Muckamore.

"That was at the start of July, but that situation has changed. They have voluntarily gone to Lakeview Hospital, where they are receiving treatment, and there are no proposals that they move to Muckamore," she said.