Record numbers seek treatment for sexual assault, with rise in use of extreme violence 

The vast majority of people attending SATUs last year were females at 91% with 8% male patients and 1% identifying as another gender or none.

A record number of 1,072 people were treated at the country’s six sexual assault treatment units last year after attendances rose 25%.

The latest annual report of the HSE-funded sexual assault treatment units (SATUs) also reveal a growing trend of the use of extreme violence in assaults

The report shows numbers attending the centres exceeded 1,000 for the first time ever last year, with an additional 213 individuals using the service compared to the previous year.

The units are in Dublin, Cork, Waterford, Mullingar, Galway and Letterkenny.

An additional 14 people were cared for in an out-of-hours service at University Hospital Limerick.

The report revealed physical restraints were used in 34% of incidents recorded by SATUs last year compared to 25% in 2021, while 7.5% of cases involved the use of weapons.

A total of five people were hospitalised due to injuries suffered during the assault, with another four individuals hospitalised for associated mental health problems.

The report found a third of all incidents resulted in some form of injury.

Drugs and alcohol

In addition, 21% of patients expressed concern that drugs including alcohol were used to facilitate a sexual assault on them — up from 15% in 2021.

Almost half of all people attending a SATU last year reported consuming more than six standard drinks at the time of the incident, while 13% had taken recreational drugs.

School or third-level students accounted for 38% of all cases in 2022.

The report also highlighted how last year was the first time since 2017 the SATU service failed to meet its key performance target of seeing 90% of all people within three hours of a request for a forensic clinical examination.

The HSE’s national clinical lead on SATUs Maeve Eogan said the most common reason for the failure to reach the target was the lack of access to a forensic suite at the time because it was already being used by another patient.

 The latest figures show 55% of patients had a forensic examination and reported the assault to gardaí last year, while 21% opted for just a health check.

A further 14% chose to have forensic evidence stored, while 7% reported the offence to gardaí without being examined.

The vast majority of people attending SATUs last year were females at 91% with 8% male patients and 1% identifying as another gender or none.

The report shows 84% of incidents last year occurred in Ireland, with 25% of the total taking place in Dublin, while 80% of all patients identified as Irish.

Two-thirds of sexual assaults happened in an indoor setting, with 44% taking place in either the patient or the assailant’s own home.

The figures show 5% of incidents occurred in a field or park, with 3% in vehicles and 1% in taxis.

According to the report, 7% of patients claimed the incident involved two or more assailants — up 2 percentage points over 2021 figures.

A breakdown of the description of assailants shows 60% of patients attending a SATU last year knew their attacker, while 26% said the offender was a stranger.

The report recorded that 2% of individuals described their assailant as a “person in authority”, while 14% were attacked by someone they had met for the first time in the previous 24 hours.

The sexual assaults occurred evenly throughout the year, while 56% of cases took place at weekends between Fridays and Sundays.

Almost 80% of attacks occurred between 8pm and 8am.