Sexual Assault Treatment Unit: "I thought mine was too trivial for people to care."

Those were the words of one woman to Margo Noonan, head of the Sexual Assault Treatment Unit at Cork's South Infirmary-Victoria University Hospital. It is a situation she and staff at the Cork and other SATUs are hoping to change, writes Social Affairs Correspondent Noel Baker.

"We are the kind of service that, unless you need us, you don't know about us," she said. While national data on SATU presentations is likely to be published in the coming weeks, information from the Cork SATU shows 144 new cases last year. Given the level of under-reporting around rape and sexual assault, that is unlikely to be anywhere near the real figure, she said, while data shows that just half of those presentations were reported to gardaí, although others may have followed.