‘Figures show need for protection’

CLIONA SAIDLEAR of the Rape Crisis Network of Ireland (RCNI) said the figures highlight the need for greater protection of children.

“It bears out the vulnerability of children and the need for special legislation and a special response,” said Ms Saidlear.

She said the fundamental concern of the RCNI was that the law was not there to protect children, particularly since the statutory rape legislation fell in the courts in 2006.

The old legislation operated on the principle of strict liability: Once the court established sex had taken place and the alleged victim was underage, rape was proven.

The court cases overthrew that.

Since then defendants have been able to argue the defence of “honest mistake”, in that they believed the victim to be overage.

“Our argument at the time the strict liability in statutory rape legislation fell was that this would have a devastating impact on the state’s ability to prosecute such cases,” said Ms Saidlear. “This seems to be borne out by the figures here.”

The statistics show a drop in defilement cases since 2006, recovering slightly last year. They also show that just 28% of reported cases resulted in a prosecution and just 15% of reported cases ended in a conviction.

Ms Saidlear said the caveat here was that the Director of Public Prosecutions may have decided to prosecute some of these cases under other sexual offences. It is also possible gardaí are recording some reported defilement cases under general rape or sexual assault.

She said the DPP could be deciding in certain cases not to prosecute in the public interest. These could be cases where the alleged victim is a 15-year-old girl and the alleged perpetrator is her 15-year-old boyfriend and there is no evidence of coercion.

But she said the DPP might judge the case un-winnable, or unethical to pursue, given the vulnerability of the witness and the right of the defendant to plead honest mistake.

She said the seemingly low number of incest cases reflected what rape crisis centres see. “Incest, we know, is the least likely to be formally reported to gardaí, stranger rape is the most likely. The closer the relationship the less likely to be reported.”

* Rape Crisis 24 hour national helpline 1800 778888.