'Imagine finding out in a newspaper that your rapist is back on the streets' 

Survivors of crime are entitled to learn when the perpetrator is being released from jail but have to sign up to an opt-in victim liaison service of which many are still unaware

Michelle Cullen's world 'turned upside down' when the man who raped her was freed. Picture: NW Newspix

Michelle Cullen only found out that the man who had raped her as a child was back on the streets when her mother telephoned her to say she had read it in a national newspaper.

Hugh Baxter, 71, was jailed in 2017 for sexually assaulting Michelle in the 1990s at a number of locations, including his home in Co Dublin and Ms Cullen’s house in Co Donegal.