DPP: Alcohol levels linked to failure to prosecute

THE Director of Public Prosecutions has said an increasing number of suspected rape cases were “unprosecutable” because complainants were intoxicated at the time of the assault and can’t remember much of what happened.

DPP James Hamilton said these women would be “destroyed” by defence counsel in any trial and that there was “no way” a jury would be able to bring in a guilty verdict.

He was speaking at the launch of ground-breaking research into rape in Ireland, which was commissioned by the Rape Crisis Network of Ireland following 2003 research which showed Ireland had the highest drop-out rate in rape investigations and the lowest conviction rates.