More gardaí promised for understaffed sex crime unit

Margo Noonan, Advaned Nurse Practioner in the Sexual Assualt Forensic Eaamination and Treatment Unit at the Stouth Infirmary-Victoria University Hospital, Cork. Picture: Dan Linehan

After being unable to take on any new cases last year, the size of the Cork Garda sex crime unit is to be almost doubled to enable it to investigate more cases.

Less than half of sexual offence investigations have been taken on by the county’s Divisional Protective Services Unit (PSU) so far this year. To counter this, Garda management has said the unit will be beefed up over the coming months with an extra two detective sergeants and nine gardaí.

Superintendent Michael Comyns said: “I want to reassure the public that anyone who reports any incident to An Garda Síochána, that it will be investigated with the compassion and discretion that it deserves.”

Sources have said that other detective units are having to take on extra workload as a result of resourcing issues at the unit.

Speaking at Templemore recently, Garda Commissioner Drew Harris said he was aware Cork has had a heavy workload over the last year “in respect of some very serious criminality” and he accepted this “has put pressure on detective resources”.

Margo Noonan, advanced nurse practitioner at Cork’s South Infirmary Sexual Assault Unit, said: “It’s very disturbing that the unit is not properly resourced.

“It needs more staff, and there will be no improvement in Cork until resources are put into that unit.”

“The officers who work in it do a brilliant job and make a great difference, but there is only so much they can do.”

A Garda spokesperson said: “During 2019, the PSU in Cork City were unable to take on additional cases due to a number of complex investigations, which involved an immense workload.

“Since the beginning of 2020, over 40% of the incidents that would fall under the Pulse category of ‘sexual offences’ have been taken on by the PSU in Cork. Sanction has been given to hold a competition over the coming months to add additional resources into the PSU in Cork.

“It is possible that this will be done over a phased basis, but the ultimate goal is to have one inspector, four sergeants, and 20 gardaí.”

If the extra staff materialise, it would represent a big boost from the numbers as of November 2019 — one inspector, two detective sergeants, and 11 gardaí.