30% of sex abuse victims suffered multiple abusers

By Juno McEnroe

Thursday, November 19, 2009

THREE in 10 survivors of sexual violence who appeared for counselling at rape crisis centres last year were victims of multiple abusers.

The annual report of the Rape Crisis Network Ireland (RCNI) today will show that in many cases sexual violence was committed by more than one perpetrator, or sometimes by groups of abusers, against both male and female victims.

A total of 1,840 survivors availed of counselling through the RCNI’s 16 centres last year.

Rape and other acts of sexual violence were committed by more than one perpetrator in over 500 cases where victims reported abuses to the centres.

Survivors who had experienced sexual violence by more than one perpetrator accounted for 29.7% of female clients and 28.4% of male clients.

Commenting ahead of the report, Rape Crisis Network Ireland executive director Fiona Neary said: "It’s disturbing that the vast majority of cases are within the family still, even beyond those from institutional abuse.

"This remains the largest single issue."

She said that the near 30% of victims who were abused by multiple perpetrators was a "very high number".

According to the report, some victims had been abused by a brother and an uncle and in some cases relatives had colluded together.

The figures are a slight increase on previous years where percentages of victims attacked by more than one abuser in 2007 were 23.3% and 25.7% in 2006.

Last year, males reported having experienced a higher incidence of sexual violence from a number of perpetrators acting together in a group (14.9%) compared with females (10.1%).

The RCNI annual report is expected to focus on sexual abuse against children and will also draw attention to the stalled talks on the proposed referendum to protect children’s rights.

Ms Neary stressed that the hardest abuse for anyone to report was that which occurred in the home, especially when it came to reporting it to the gardaí.

Elsewhere, the annual report will reveal that 129 survivors who attended rape crisis centres had experienced sexual violence both as children and as adults. Nearly all victims who sought counselling in this category were female.

Of those who were subjected to sexual violence both as a child and as an adult, almost half reported being raped (54.4%).

Ms Neary added: "It’s not unusual that those who abuse as a child then go on to abuse in a marriage."

This story appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Thursday, November 19, 2009