Women voice anger at remarks of Corrib officers

Dozens of women demonstrated outside the Dáil over the so-called “rape tape” scandal in which garda officers joked about raping two female protesters.

The women expressed anger at the comments, with some demanding the officers be suspended from the force while the Garda Ombudsman carried out its investigation.

Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan apologised last night for the hurt and pain felt by victims of sexual crime sparked by the controversy.

But Cathleen O’Neill, of the Kilbarrack Community Development Project in north Dublin, dismissed Mr Callinan’s statement.

“I’m here to make a stand,” she said. “I think the trivialisation of rape is really what happened on Monday. I think it’s an absolute disgrace that misogyny and power go hand in hand.

“The people that are paid to protect us actually end up threatening us.”

Ms O’Neill said she did not trust the Ombudsman’s investigation into the comments made by officers assigned to police protests against the contentious Corrib gas project.

Members of the National Women’s Council, the Feminist Open Forum, the Irish Feminist Network, Siptu, Rape Crisis Centre and the Migrant Rights Centre took part in the protest, holding banners stating rape was not a joke and calling for no more threats of sexual violence.

Ellen O’Malley Dunlop, of the Rape Crisis Centre, hit out at the officers for making the remarks.

“While we have been working with the gardaí over the years to encourage more people to come forward and report this heinous crime, it is absolutely totally unacceptable that gardaí would make jokes about this heinous crime in the way in which they did,” she said.

Ailbhe Smyth of the Feminist Open Forum said they were angered and shocked by the comments.

“We wanted to express that shock and that anger and we’re obviously calling for a comprehensive inquiry and an independent inquiry into the behaviour of these gardaí, who have been removed from front-line duty but have not been suspended from their posts,” Ms Smyth said.

Garda Commissioner Callinan said five members of his force had been confined to desk-bound duties while police watchdog the Garda Ombudsman investigates.

Four of the officers at the centre of the controversy have also been transferred out of their own bases to their divisional headquarters in Castlebar, Co Mayo.

The apology came just hours after one of two women protesters involved went public to demand an independent inquiry into the policing of oil giant Shell’s contentious gas pipeline project, on the north Mayo coastline.

Jerrie Ann Sullivan, a postgraduate student from Dublin, said the remarks, unwittingly recorded on a video camera, of gardaí joking about raping them had been deeply traumatic.

Neither of the women were at the Dáil protest.

Ms Sullivan and the Shell to Sea campaign have called for the Garda Ombudsman to widen its inquiry and for a separate independent probe headed up by international experts.

A protest is to be held outside Belmullet Garda Station in Co Mayo tomorrow in support of people who allege they have been mistreated by gardaí policing the Corrib gas project.

Grainne Griffin, of Dublin Shell to Sea, said the remarks were indicative of attitudes towards all women in Ireland.

“As long as it is allowed to happen in Mayo, and as long as it is allowed to happen to people who are arrested down there, then it can be tolerated all over the country,” Ms Griffin said.

“We need people to make a stand, to say that this is not going to be accepted.”