On Friday, 4th September 2026, the Irish Méndez Centre hosted a half-day seminar on Child Interviewing at Dublin City University. This seminar, attended by over 100 practitioners, addressed a wide array of core topics including:
- Opportunities and challenges involved in interviewing children who may have experienced sexual abuse;
- Recent academic research on child developmental psychology, particularly centered on methods to interview children who are reluctant to make disclosures;
- Empirical findings on what young people find helpful and supportive when engaging with formal police investigations;
- Practical guidelines and protocols for conducting police interviews with children and vulnerable adults who are interviewed as suspects;
- Understanding the deep psychological vulnerability of children under interrogation, and the risks of acquiescence and compliance; and
- Managing cognitive bias, avoiding coercive questioning styles, and implementing rigorous hypothesis testing during investigative processes.
The event featured three leading international expert speakers (two of whom are members of ImpleMéndez): experience:
- Dr Rosaleen McElvaney (Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Psychotherapist): Dr McElvaney lectures in the Schools of Psychology and Nursing, Psychotherapy and Community Health at Dublin City University. She is also a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist. Her career spans extensive practice in specialised sexual abuse services and training academic and clinical professionals. She has published widely on child sexual abuse disclosure and is the author of three prominent textbooks: ‘Finding the words: Talking children through the tough times’ (Veritas, 2015), ‘How children tell: Containing the secret of child sexual abuse’ (Lambert Publishers, 2015), and ‘Helping children tell about sexual abuse: Guidance for helpers’ (Jessica Kingsley, 2016).
- Sigrid Buseth (Norwegian Police Academy Instructor and Lecturer): Sigrid Buseth graduated from the Norwegian Police Academy in 1992 and worked as a senior investigator specialising in child sexual abuse cases from 2005 until her recent retirement. She is an expert in investigative interviewing, contributing heavily to the development of sequential interview techniques for very young children. She completed a master’s thesis in 2020 on how 15-year-olds understand their suspect rights during police interviews. Together with the Norwegian Attorney General, she prepared statutory directives for interviewing suspect children and vulnerable adults in 2023, and in 2026 published practical guidelines to serve as a hands-on tool for active investigators. She currently lectures internationally in partnership with the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights at the University of Oslo (which is also a Méndez Centre).
- Dr Francesco Pompedda (Senior Researcher, University of Turku, Finland): Pompedda is a licensed psychologist in Italy, an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society, and a Senior Researcher at the INVEST Research Flagship Center at the University of Turku, Finland (having previously served as Academic Course Leader for the BSc in Forensic Psychology at the University of Gloucestershire, UK). In collaboration with Professor Pekka Santtila, Dr. Pompedda co-developed the world’s first avatar-based training system utilising dynamic response algorithms to train law enforcement, judges, prosecutors, and psychologists on child interviewing techniques in sexual abuse cases. His research has recently expanded to the integration of artificial intelligence in broader legal contexts.