A woman who was reporting being raped to An Garda Síochána said a member of the force flirted with her during the interview, according to research into abuse survivors’ experiences of the criminal justice system.
Support charity One in Four conducted interviews and focus groups with 15 survivors about their experiences of reporting abuse to authorities.
One woman told a focus group that a garda flirted with her as she was trying to make a criminal complaint about being raped.
“Looking back at it now, f***ing hell. I was there reporting multiple rapes and this guy was like, ‘Oh, are you fit? You look fit; you run? Oh cool, I’d say you’ve good craic on a night out’ and all this kind of stuff,” she told the researchers.
Another survivor described the experience of reporting their abuse as being like “slicing” themselves open. “Then nobody helping you put it back together afterwards, you just have to leave,” they said.
Some had positive experiences of reporting their abuse to gardaí, the research noted. In one case a survivor said being told that they were believed had a “powerful” impact. “I didn’t think I needed to hear it until I heard it, which was huge.”
Family member
The research, published on Tuesday, was conducted by Naomi Gould, advocacy case manager at One in Four between August and December last.
Just under half of the survivors who participated had been abused by a family member, while more than a third disclosed being sexually abused by more than one perpetrator.
In cases where the Director of Public Prosecutions decided against bringing charges, survivors reported feeling "dismissed" and "let down".
Some who took part in the research described the process of going through a criminal trial as “horrific” and said they felt “caught up in a system” without support. One survivor said the experience of the court process was like being “run over by a bus”.
Others told One in Four how they felt they had “gained their life back” and got closure after the perpetrator was convicted.
The research recommended mandatory “specialist trauma informed training” be introduced for gardaí to improve how survivors were interviewed.
It also recommended a “code of conduct” for the questioning of witnesses during trials related to sexual and domestic crime, and that the number of judges be increased to reduce delays in the court process.
