Taoiseach urges victims to report sex crimes

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has urged rape victims not to lose the courage to come forward after the controversy engulfing the Fiona Doyle case.

The rape trial, which saw Ms Doyle’s father, Patrick O’Brien, having nine years of his 12-year sentence suspended and released on bail pending an appeal, dominated leader’s questions — even though the Ceann Comhairle ruled TDs could not comment.

The treatment of O’Brien, who pleaded guilty to raping his daughter over a 10-year period, provoked opposition demands for wide-ranging reform of the Court of Criminal Appeal and a new mandatory sentencing regime for rape.