Rape crisis group calls for indecent exposure to be treated seriously

Perpetrators often progress to more serious sexual offences, experts warn

Garda Commissioner Drew Harris has announced a review of investigations against gardaí accused of domestic or sexual crimes.

There is a tendency in Ireland to “minimise” more minor sexual offences like indecent exposure, but perpetrators often progress to more serious offences, Rape Crisis Network Ireland (RCNI) has said.

RCNI legal director Caroline Counihan said this was why a “zero tolerance” approach to it was so important.

Ms Counihan's comments come after Garda Commissioner Drew Harris announced a review of investigations against gardaí accused of domestic or sexual crimes to make sure they were properly conducted.

Mr Harris said the review was in light of lessons from the Sarah Everard case in London, where a then serving Met officer, Wayne Couzens, raped and murdered her.

Drew Harris said the review was in light of lessons from the Sarah Everard case in London.

It emerged that there had been three allegations of indecent exposure against Couzens, two of them in the weeks before the murder, but that none of them appeared to have been properly investigated.

“People might start with what might be called minor sexual harassment and progresses into sexual assault,” said Ms Counihan.

“Generally, in our culture there is still a tendency to minimise it or dismiss it. We would see it from the point of view of the effect on the victims — people can be incredibly upset by an incident of flashing.” 

She said the general culture was to snigger at these incidents, play them down, and even pity the culprit

“But, it might be part of a pattern of predatory behaviour," she said. 

"We know sexual violence tends to get more serious, we can’t leave out that possibility — that’s why we should take a rigorous stance and a zero tolerance approach to this behaviour, particularly when you think about law enforcement and the trust placed in them by survivors. It's so important to keep the trust.” 

Figures supplied by the CSO to the Irish Examiner show that a relatively low number of “indecency” offences are reported to gardaí, running at between 316 and 330 cases per annum over the last four years, with just over 200 cases in the first half of this year.

'Indecency' relates to "recording of occurrences where an individual engages in behaviour of a sexual nature, which, having regard to all the circumstances, is likely to cause fear, distress or alarm to any person who is, or might reasonably be expected to be aware of any such behaviour" (Section 45 of Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017).

“I suspect not a lot of people report it,” said Ms Counihan. “I think part of that is the culture, that’s my suspicion, I feel that’s part of it, these actions are minimised, but they are serious.

“The feeling among some people might be ‘sure it's only flashing’, ‘would anyone take me seriously if I report it’? 

"We would always encourage people to report that, but it’s something people might not want to do that and want to move on with their lives. They might be so upset they couldn’t be telling some police officer, or they just minimise it.” 

But she said it was right to get the culprits “early” and deter them.

Noeline Blackwell of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre agreed: “This kind of abuse, like other abuse, like bullying, the perpetrators will test the boundaries and if abusers can get away with it, they will, they will spread them further, so it's really, really important that we stop it early.”

- If you are affected by any of the issues raised in this article, please click here for a list of support services.