Psychologists raise alarm over use of victims’ counselling notes in sexual assault trials

Mary Crilly, CEO of the Cork Sexual Violence Centre, will be the main speaker at the event taking place on Tuesday evening, and says she gets particularly angry “about what is put in the notes'. File photo: Darragh Kane

More than 100 psychologists are to hear concerns about the amount of information being disclosed to defence teams in sex offence trials from victims' counselling notes.

The event taking place on Tuesday evening is being organised by the Psychological Society of Ireland and will feature chief executive of the Cork Sexual Violence Centre, Mary Crilly, as the main speaker.

It comes as legislation around the disclosure of counselling records in sexual assault trials is currently the subject of pre-legislative scrutiny by the Oireachtas Justice, Home Affairs and Migration Committee. Following a pre-legislative scrutiny hearing last month, a report will shortly be issued by the committee which will then feed into the completion of the legislation, before the end of this year.

The general scheme of the Criminal Law and Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2025 was approved by the Cabinet in May and includes measures aimed at ensuring that counselling records are only released where the court decides that they contain material relevant to legal proceedings. 

However, survivors are fighting to prevent the use of any counselling notes in such trials. Mary Crilly agrees with concerns about the use of counselling notes but she stressed that she gets particularly angry “about what is put in the notes”.

She said there is no need for lengthy notes following a counselling session, as she believes it allows for extensive “ammunition” in cases were counselling notes are used by a defence team in a trial.

She said: “It gives so much ammunition to the other side. Counsellors have full control on what goes into those notes.” 

We need to continue to fight to get them out of the court but in the meantime, do not provide ammunition. 

Ms Crilly says notes following counselling sessions at the Cork Sexual Violence Centre are just a few lines long, in a bid to ensure that the contents of such notes do not have much information to be used in trials by a defence team.

The Psychological Society of Ireland has called for an immediate end to the practice of accessing therapy notes in sex offence cases.

The society says the practice “undermines the confidential and trust-based therapeutic process and poses a serious barrier for those seeking support following experiences of sexual violence”.

It also says effective support for clients “requires a therapeutic setting characterised by consistency, psychological safety, and trust, all of which are compromised under the threat of legal exposure”.

The society says psychologists are guided by the PSI Code of Professional Ethics (2019), with many providing “formal, clinically informed reports to the courts when appropriate”.

It adds: “Using such notes in legal proceedings is ethically inappropriate, clinically unjustified, and risks undermining trust in psychological care.”