OUT OF CONTROL

Our hypersexualised society is having devastating consequences for children, with teen rape cases far more commonplace writes Claire O’Sullivan

ON a laneway alongside a church, a 13-year-old girl was raped in Cork last year. The rapist was a 17-year-old boy, aided by his friends. Two other boys held the screaming girl to the ground as the older boy viciously attacked her, inflicting untold physical, emotional and psychological pain on a child that hadn’t even started secondary school yet.

According to director of the Cork Sexual Violence Centre, Mary Crilly, such stories, while horrific, are becoming more commonplace. Time after time, she is seeing abuse cases where often a shy, young teenager is asked by an older teenager to meet up with him — something that makes her feel “really big”. The first date might go well, even the second and then on the third, she finds herself pinned down and sexually assaulted or raped. The young victim doesn’t know what to do. She mightn’t remember everything as she was drinking. And sure didn’t she agree to meet him? Didn’t she want to kiss him?