At least one in five women will experience domestic or sexual abuse, according to the National Womens' Council.

7% of Irish people think sex without consent is acceptable, if a person is out walking alone at night.

The lack of dedicated sexual assault treatment units for children is adding “immensely” to the trauma of families trying to deal with child sex abuse, writes Cormac O'Keeffe.

Lenient sentences are putting victims off reporting sex crimes and are sending out the wrong messages, the Rape Crisis Network has warned.

The judiciary do not operate in a vacuum. Any judge whose habitual conduct shocks the public will have a detrimental effect on justice, writes Dan Buckley

A judge who controversially jailed a businessman for six years for a garlic import scam has let a sex attacker walk free from court.

A legal battle centred on sex abuse ended in a victory for the Holy See, writes John Breslin in Chicago

First-time callers to a rape crisis helpline increased by almost 20% last year.

Children’s Minister Frances Fitzgerald said the seven child protection reports were “horrific” and “shocking”, with child protection being ignored in some instances up until last year.

Pic 1: Ken Doherty and Lorraine Keane at the Virgin Atlantic International Charity Lunch in aid of the Rape Crisis Centre at the Westin Hotel, Dublin.

A FRIEND of mine once said to me “surely it’s for the makers of pornography to prove it’s harmless than for others to prove how harmful it is”.

Fresh controversy surrounds the case of sex offender Anthony Lyons after it emerged his six-year sentence can only be reactivated if he reoffends within two years of his release, rather than during the full six-year period.

Rape crisis groups have hit out at the sentence in the Anthony Lyons case, describing it as very lenient.

THE Rape Crisis Centre has said the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) should meet the victims of clerical abuse in Cloyne to discuss his decision not to seek prosecution against the alleged serial paedophile in the 2008 Cloyne report.

A RAPE crisis charity has issued a set of tips which they hope can help prevent the upsurge of sexual assaults linked to better weather and outdoor events.

A SURGE of 45% in first-time callers to rape crisis support services last year was triggered by the release of two damning abuse reports.

BARNARDOS, the children’s charity, has had to close some of its waiting lists to new referrals until after Christmas because of pressure on services.

Were it not for their dedication and commitment to children, matched only by the anger and frustration of the voluntary organisations at the coalface of child protection in Ireland, the Ryan report might well be consigned to a convenient shelf where it would quietly gather dust.

FUNDING which was to be made available to counselling services for victims of sexual abuse in the aftermath of the Ryan Report has still not been allocated to support groups one year on from the damning report, it has emerged.

If Government promises were enough to resolve our problems, we would probably have no problems, because the current Government has never been short on promises.