Mary Lou McDonald criticises ‘appalling’ treatment of plaintiff

Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald said the treatment of the woman at the heart of the Belfast rape trial was “pretty appalling and unfortunate”.

Speaking at an Easter Sunday event in Dublin, she said the whole system of legal protections for complainants “needs to be fixed”.

“You are left with a completely unsatisfactory situation where the person raising the complaint has very limited, in this jurisdiction, access to legal advice and an ability to cross-examine and virtually none in the North. That needs to be fixed,” she said.