There has been a dramatic fall in the number of rape cases coming before the Central Criminal Court, according to the latest figures which have been seen by The Irish Times.
Forty rape cases came before the court last year, compared with 130 in both 1998 and 1999. The number started to fall in 2000, when 113 were received, and this trend continued over the next three years, when the figures declined to 92 in 2001, 82 in 2002 and 52 in 2003.
More cases were dealt with than received, with 72 rape cases disposed of in 2004. Fifty-nine murder cases were disposed of, with 28 received by the court.
The figures, compiled by the registrar of the Central Criminal Court, Liam Convey, will be included in the Courts Service's annual report due for publication later this year. They are not accompanied by any explanatory remarks.
However, it is likely that at least part of the drop in rape cases is accounted for by the fact that a number of long-delayed rape and sexual abuse cases, involving victims who were children at the time, have worked their way through the system.
Organisations working with rape victims have also argued that there is a reluctance on the part of victims to report attacks because they feel a successful prosecution is unlikely.
The figures from the Central Criminal Court do not bear this out. Of the 37 rape and sexual assault cases that went to jury trial, 16 resulted in acquittal and 15 resulted in conviction on one of the charges. The remaining six were accounted for either by the jury disagreeing or the DPP entering a nolle prosequi during the trial.
Of the remaining 35, there were 20 guilty pleas to rape or sexual assault, three pleas to attempted rape or assault and 10 decisions not to proceed with the prosecution, one instance where the accused had died before the case came to trial, and one where the prosecution was quashed. Therefore of the 72 cases brought there were 38 convictions on rape or a related charge, slightly more than half of all those charged.
The conviction rate for those charged with murder or manslaughter was higher. Of the 59 cases that came before the court, seven were acquitted and the jury disagreed in three cases. In 19 of the remainder, there was a guilty plea to charges ranging from being an accessory to murder or manslaughter. In the remaining 30 cases, the jury found the accused guilty of murder or manslaughter.
Therefore, there was a 75 per cent conviction rate by juries in murder trials and an overall conviction rate of 83 per cent.
The figures also showed the sentences imposed by the court.
Apart from the mandatory life sentence for murder where the court has no discretion, it showed that the majority of sentences fell between five and 10 years.
Eighty-nine people received sentences from the court - 13 received a sentence between five and seven years and 22 received a sentence of between seven and 10.
The figures also show inroads are being made in the court's backlog of cases. The number dealt with exceeded those received for the fourth year running, while the waiting time for a case to come to be heard has fallen from almost two years to nine months.
This has resulted from the allocation of additional High Court judges to hear Central Criminal Court cases. The fact that the court sat outside Dublin also helped in processing cases.
The bulk of cases, however, are still being dealt with by the permanent judge at the Central Criminal Court, Mr Justice Paul Carney, who heard 39 per cent of the murder cases (24) and 65 per cent of the rape cases (47).
Mr Justice Patrick White heard 11 murder cases, with Mr Justice Henry Abbott and Mr Justice Diarmuid O'Donovan hearing six each. Mr Justice Abbott also heard six rape cases. The rest of the High Court judges allocated to this court heard under 10 cases each.