The family of a resident at the shamed Áras Attracta has made an appeal for calm, followed a heated response to the recent Prime Time documentary.
The shocking Inside Bungalow Three exposed shameful abuse of intellectually disabled residents at the care home in Swinford, Co. Mayo, with The Sun subsequently reporting that the featured care workers, who have since been suspended, had received death threats since the programme aired.
Relations of Mary Garvin, one of the residents featured in the programme, later spoke out on the Today With Sean O’Rourke show on Radio 1 to discourage “mob rule” and said that they wanted the workers to be treated “humanely”.
“We want due process. We want the inquiries that have been instigated to proceed. This includes a garda investigation. We want the people that are on suspension to be allowed due process and the opportunity of telling their side of the story and explaining their actions.They must be given time and space to do that. We want to thank sincerely the many carers, nurses and other professionals who are today and have been in the past working quietly, caringly and professionally in Áras Attracta. They deserve our support, encouragement, appreciation and thanks,” read a statement from the family.
“We want them to know that they are doing a good job in a very challenging profession. Under no circumstances, do we want mob rule. We abhor violence in every shape or form. Everyone is innocent until they are proven guilty and we want all the people on suspension to be afforded the time and the space to tell their story and explain their actions. Finally, and very importantly, our thoughts and prayers are with all of these people now on suspension. They have families and relatives too, and we know they are all suffering. We want them treated humanely and with respect and the Garvin family believe in forgiveness as a way forward.”
While the faces of the workers were blurred out for the broadcast, a local business owner said that residents in the Swinford area knew the identities of those involved and there was a “total sense of shock and horror” in the town.
“There is a major degree of sympathy and horror for the people who were involved in the abuse in that unit. But there is also a large degree, a mass thing of hatred running for other people involved in that show. We know all the people who are involved. It is a small, tight community. People know who works there – most people will know somebody. Everyone here knows who the people are who were suspended. Everybody around knows who they are. They would have been seen as ordinary, decent, hardworking people. The people of Swinford are shocked to see the scenes on PrimeTime.”
