Victims urged to visit sex assault units

Victims of rape and sexual assault can go to any of the country’s six sexual assault treatment units without reporting the incident to the gardaí, a major GP conference has heard.

Dr Nicola Cochrane, a member of the Irish College of General Practitioners’ women’s health programme, said staff at the treatment units will do an assessment of the victim and store sample material.

Dr Cochrane, who works in the sexual assault treatment unit in the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin, said many victims of rape and sexual assault delay reporting the crime by a year or more: “Sometimes there can be delayed reporting by more than a year and sometimes by a number of years. We want them to know that they have an opportunity to have an assessment without making a commitment to report the crime to the gardaí.