Lack of government leaves law for rape victims in limbo

The newly appointed head of the country’s largest rape crisis service provider is warning that vital protections for victims are being delayed while government formation talks drag on. 

Noeline Blackwell, who took over as chief executive of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre in recent days, is pleading with whoever forms in her new role, the Woman kind fundraising event in Dublin this afternoon.

The wideranging Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill strengthens protections for children against online predators by introducing new offences and tougher sanctions.

It tightens up the law on the organisation and distribution of child pornography, provides for new harassment orders, and up dates the law on incest and indecent exposure.

It also criminalises the purchasers of sexual services without criminalising the sex worker, and it removes the prohibition on people with intellectual disabilities from having sexual relationships while maintaining safeguards against their exploitation.

Ms Blackwell, who was formerly director general of the Free Leg al Advice Centres, said it was important that the long-awaited legal reforms contained in the bill were not left to gather dust.

“It went through all but the final stages and there was political consensus on it so now we just need political action on it.”

Ms Blackwell expressed concern at the latest figures released by the Central Statistics Office last week that showed an increase in the number of reported rapes and sexual assaults last year and she said more needed to be done to support victims to seek help.

”This is the most intimate of crimes where acknowledgement of the crime, let alone reporting, will often change important relationships in the home or workplace,” she said.