Traumatised rape victims should be supported through legal process

GROTESQUE, unbelievable, bizarre and unprecedented seems like an apt description of the callous treatment meted out by the Irish criminal justice system to an alleged gang rape victim.

Giving evidence in the Central Criminal Court three weeks ago, some confusion arose when a woman alleged a number of men had trapped her in a wardrobe before she was taken to another room and raped.

In order to establish who had allegedly done what, Justice Paul Carney made the very unusual request of asking the woman to get out of the witness box and walk to the back of the dock, where she stood facing the three defendants’ backs.