Cinema ads to reach out to rape victims

THROUGHOUT the Christmas period cinema screens will carry a hard-hitting ad campaign speaking directly to rape victims.

Tomorrow, the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre will launch a seasonal cinema-based campaign across the country.

Its chief executive, Ellen O’Malley-Dunlop, said people are at a much higher risk of being sexually assaulted at Christmas and this needs to be highlighted.

“During the holiday periods the number of people contacting our helpline, who experience recent rape or sexual assault, dramatically increases.

“This is particularly true in the Christmas to New Year period,” she said.

The new campaign will be based on the theme “behind closed doors” and will ask those who feel they have been the victim of abuse to contact their local crisis centre.

Last December and January more than 2,400 people phoned the helpline and 62 people were accompanied to sexual assault treatment units.

Ms O’Malley-Dunlop said the cinema campaign was designed to warn people on the most obvious dangers during nights out.

“We are really trying to urge people to be cautious at this time of year and to take all the necessary precautions when they are out.

“We would prefer our streets to be safe but we have to be realistic because there are predators out there.

“Especially when girls are out it is important they only drink drinks they buy themselves or ones they get from people they know and trust.”

However, Ms O’Malley- Dunlop said the centre is keen to stress whatever the obvious risks are they should not be used to make a victim feel as if a sexual assault is their fault.

This Christmas campaign will be launched at the same time as Galway’s rape crisis centre is calling for the city’s new sexual assault treatment unit to be built as quick as possible.

Funding for the unit was sanctioned in last week’s budget and the centre’s co-ordinator Tanja Alanko-O’Malley said she hoped there would be no further delays.

“It’s good to get dedicated funding but we’re still in the very early stages. There’s no timeline as to when the centre might be up and running.

“Hopefully it won’t take too long. We are a bit cautious and we’ll just have to wait and see. We’d hope that there would be consultation with the different agencies from the beginning.”