FF: Sex case accusers should get more legal help

ALLEGED victims of sexual offence cases should be offered extra protections particularly when their sexual histories are raised in court, Fianna Fáil has said.

The party’s justice spokesman, Jim O’Callaghan, is calling for alleged victims to get their own barrister in cases where they feel the DPP has not adequately protected them in relation to questioning on their previous sexual activity.

He also believes they should be given a statutory right to be given swift legal advice on what the court process will entail after making an allegation.

The comments come following the public outcry over the Belfast rape trial and after Charlie Flanagan promised a review into how such trials are conducted here. Mr O’Callaghan views the Justice Minister’s response as ‘non-committal’.

On RTÉ’s Today With Seán O’Rourke, Mr O’Callaghan referred to the Belfast trial as an example of where a DPP will use an alleged victim’s account to be put forward by prosecuting counsel.

‘We saw that recently in the Belfast trial, where the interests of the woman were put forward by [the prosecution barrister], then he cross-examined the men by putting forward the woman’s narrative’ he said.

‘So it’s correct to say that a complainant in a rape or sexual assault charge doesn’t have her own legal representation.’

Mr O’Callaghan said it is important to recognise that the complainant’s interests are represented by the prosecution at trial, but added: ‘That sort of legal, technical response ignores the fact that many women who are victims of rape or sexual assault appear not to proceed to making a formal complaint.’ He said women in such cases often do not feel they have been adequately protected.

Mr O’Callaghan, himself a barrister, said: ‘I fully recognise that if the case is being run properly and thoroughly, there will be no need or necessity to seek to intervene and the complainant shouldn’t have any complaints about the manner in which it has been run.

‘But sometimes women in rape cases believe that they weren’t treated adequately or their interests weren’t fully defended by the prosecuting authorities. If that happens, then they should be entitled to get their own legal representation for the purpose of protecting themselves from a particular line of cross examination.’

Under the Criminal Justice Act 2017, an application can be made to the court to restrain the questioning of the alleged victim about his or her private life.

But Mr O’Callaghan wants extra protections ‘if her interests are not being adequately represented by the DPP’.

Only 35% of those who suffer sexual violence report it to the gardaí or other authority, according to latest figures.