McDowell admits 'serious concerns' over low rate of rape convictions

JUSTICE Minister Michael McDowell yesterday admitted that the poor rate of conviction for rape cases posed "very serious cause for concern."

However, despite the fact that up to 95% of rape cases fail to result in a conviction, Mr McDowell said he had no idea why the DPP frequently decided not to proceed with cases against those accused of rape.

"The DPP is statutorily independent in the performance of its functions and therefore it's inappropriate for me to comment on his decisions," he said.

However, Mr McDowell suggested that the DPP may be operating more restrictive rules than counterparts in other countries.

"I don't know whether the DPP in Ireland is operating on the basis of requiring a higher standard of proof, a higher standard of probability of success, than, say, in the United Kingdom. But I do know that he obviously is independent and he has to make a decision, for instance, whether there is corroborative detail and whether the case will end up in a 'he did, he didn't' type of case."

He also conceded that the length of time it takes to pursue a trial here would probably lead to victims dropping their cases.

"The anticipation of an adversarial trial in unsympathetic circumstances may cause a lot of women, in particular who have been the subject of rape offences, to withdraw their claims or to abandon them and that is something which we would have to study very carefully," he said.

In that regard, the minister said a study, due to be delivered by the National Crime Council shortly, would "provide a very interesting analysis of why Irish cases take longer."

Fine Gael's justice spokesman Jim O'Keeffe accused Mr McDowell of playing around with figures and statistics.

"I think we have a serious problem here and I'd like the minister to confront the facts as they are. The facts are that in the last full year, 2003, of 1,460 cases reported or made known to gardaí of sexual assault only 117 resulted in conviction."

He added: "Surely these are horrendous figures taking into account the heinous nature of the crime and surely the minister does have some views as to the causes of such attrition.

"We really have a huge problem in relation to a horrendous type of crime. It needs to be confronted and we need to look at it through the eyes of the victims to see what can be done to try and get a higher rate of conviction."