Sexual assaults - Victims must not suffer in silence

While the legal situation requires that women who have been raped should be forensically examined before they can take a shower or bath, it is utterly intolerable that some women have to travel for three or four hours before they can be examined.

These examinations take place at one of the country’s five Sexual Assault Treatment Units.

There was a rota of doctors carrying out such examinations in Limerick, but that system has collapsed. Now women who are raped in Limerick have to travel to have the examination in Cork. As a result, many women are deciding not to go through with reporting this heinous crime.