Neil Breen: Paedophilia is a ‘mental illness’ that must be treated

It’s a taboo subject but one that can’t be ignored any longer - the way we respond to these evil criminals needs to change, argues Neil Breen.

OPINION: I have witnessed the struggle of a person with mental health issues for a long time. When I say struggle, I mean a serious struggle, a daily battle.

Through it all, I have seen a lot.

I have no struggles with mental health. It’s a mystery to me.

Over the years, when asked about mental health or when it comes up frequently in conversation, I simply say this: “I have seen it near me my whole life … I know all about it. Yet I know nothing about it.”

I must stress, this person is not a paedophile. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Why I raise their story is because, surely paedophilia is a form of mental illness. A much different mental illness to the person I know, but a mental illness nonetheless. One that needs treatment.

4BC's Neil Breen.

While I say I know nothing about mental illness as I do not suffer from it, what I do know from what I have seen is, any sort of mental illness, untreated and uncared for, can only have one outcome – a devastating one.

My acquaintance could not have possibly made it through without the care of a psychiatrist. Constant care.

To think we, as a society, do not have proper programs or enough trained people to prevent paedophilia is shocking and frightening. It’s also shameful.

Is it because it is such a taboo subject? Most people, like me, don’t want to know about it, or engage with it.

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To be honest, I am finding it difficult to write about. Worried about what the fallout of my words might be.

I’m concerned about my use of an analogy regarding general mental illness. Will people misunderstand what I am writing? Will they try and cancel me for even going there? Howl me down as someone who has no idea.

If we all keep doing that, nothing will change.

I am simply trying to explain that illnesses need treatment, be they mental health or cancer or liver failure.

So, taboo or not, we must engage with it, for the outcomes on those offended against are more than devastating. Lives are destroyed. In many cases, wiped out.

I can hear the response of governments already as I have seen and heard it all before. Firstly, there’ll be the deflection by rolling out stats about rehabilitation in our jails and the parole system and monitoring and blah blah. Then there’ll be the cost factor – that our health systems are groaning and hospitals overrun and there’s only so much money.

Neil Breen wants proper programs to prevent paedophilia.

But, what cost a life? Especially in this space where private psychologists believe with proper counselling many paedophiles can receive help before offending takes place.

Here in Queensland, the Palaszczuk government was re-elected in 2020 on a “keeping Queenslanders safe” mantra. If that is the true belief of our government, not just a politically expedient line, it must extend beyond a pandemic, and into everything it does. Every last thing.

Spending more on paedophilia prevention is a must. Not a wish, or a plan.

In this State we wasted $230m on a quarantine facility in Toowoomba to “keep Queenslanders safe”. It was used by a handful of people and now stands empty, waiting to be handed over to the private operators as an asset in perpetuity. Imagine if we spent $230m on psychology and psychiatry for paedophiles? Makes you think doesn’t it.

Neil Breen is the host of Brisbane Live on 882 4BC from 3-6pm weekdays.

For more details about the Predatory podcast, go to predatory.com.au

Originally published as Neil Breen: Paedophilia is a ‘mental illness’ that must be treated