One person raped every day, says official report

More than one person was raped on average every day in Ireland this year, official crime figures have shown.

There were 102 recorded cases between January and March which represents a 25% jump in serious sex attacks on the same period last year.

Murder, drugs, firearms offences and gun crime all rose during the first three months of the year, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) today revealed.

Other areas of crime dropped, however, including assault, public order offences, burglary and theft.

Justice Minister Dermot Ahern said there was an encouraging overall downward trend but he remained concerned about serious violent crime.

“While there was a minimal increase in the number of murders in the quarter, I am aware that the majority of these were carried out with firearms, which is a characteristic of gang-related murders,” he said.

“I am concerned at the level of serious crime for which organised crime is responsible, and I am continuing to work on strong legislative responses.”

The latest CSO figures showed:

Murders rose from 13 to 14 during the first three months of the year, 11 of those gangland-related, although the overall homicide rate was down significantly because of a drop in dangerous driving leading to death offences.

Rape and aggravated sexual assaults increased, but the total figures for sexual offences show a decrease because of a sharp decline in the number of non-aggravated sexual assaults.

Kidnapping and related offences soared by more than 72% while drugs offences were up 5%.

Robbery, extortion and hijacking were up slightly on last year.

Burglary, theft, fraud, deception and related offences all recorded a drop, and

Public order and other social offences were down almost 13%.

Ellen O’Malley-Dunlop, of Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, said the official figures confirmed their own warnings about rising violent sex attacks and gang rapes.

“Rape is one of the most violent crimes and what we are seeing in the last number of years is that the level of violence accompanying the rape has gone up,” she said.

“Unfortunately too, sometimes there is more than one perpetrator.”

Ms O’Malley-Dunlop said the number of sex attack victims volunteers accompanied to the sexual assault treatment centre in Dublin jumped by 62% in the first three months of the year.

However, she said there is still a huge gap in the numbers getting to trial – with a third of all victims withdrawing from the prosecution case.

“I’m hoping more people are coming forward because of the awareness raising campaigns,” she added.

“I’m hoping the taboo in talking about rape is less rather than the crime itself being on the increase.

“What we need now to do is make sure people stay in the system and get through to trial.”