Support group brands criminal justice system traumatic for sexual abuse victims

Ireland’s criminal justice system is still a source of trauma and distress for victims of sexual abuse.

That’s according to the support group ‘One in Four’ on the launch of its tenth annual report.

Since 2003, it has delivered over 51,000 hours of counseling to adult survivors and guided over 4,500 victims through the courts process.

Executive Director of ‘One in Four’ Maeve Lewis, wants to see specialised training rolled out to handle such sensitive cases.

"All the barristers, solicitors and the judges must have specialist training to understand how difficult it is for a survivor to come forward," she said.

"How thee entire dynamics of a criminal trial with the power all in different hands, with witness silenced absolutely mimics what happens in sexual abuse and sends people back into that earlier abuse."