SURVIVORS CALL FOR URGENT ACTION

Priscilla Grainger, a survivor and founder of Stop Domestic Violence Ireland, said she wasn’t surprised by the figures.

Summons

She said: “This is nothing new. I am not surprised by these figures, yet again it shows we need to have more gardai, more trained gardai and we need gardai that understand domestic violence.

“I have had in the past two weeks five places where victims didn’t get barring orders because the gardai didn’t serve summons on time.

“I got those five victims into safe accommodation, they would have been murdered otherwise and I firmly believe that.

“I spent eight hours on Thursday trying to fight a case and we are back in again next week, and the judge was not happy that the summons was not served properly by the gardai. Something as simple as the serving of a notice wasn’t done right and that can throw the whole case back, so what do we do with victims in the meantime?

“The Justice Minister Helen McEntee is doing a great job in trying to get domestic violence dealt with, but as I said to her, what is going to happen to the victims who fall between the cracks?

“And now the victims have fallen between the cracks because a summons wasn’t served properly.

“There is a big hole there, and this is what is happening. This is what you hear, the gardai don’t have enough cars in the station to find the perpetrator, or they’re asking me do I know where the perpetrator is.”

Other startling figures in the Garda report show the offender being male in the majority of incidents (74 per cent) with a female victim.

One of the highest profile cases in the past year was the murder of Jennifer Poole at her home in Melville Drive in Finglas on April 17.

Ms Grainger supported the family throughout the case and has called for tougher measures for abusers, particularly those with a history of violence against women

Murders

Ms Poole’s killer Gavin Murphy attacked and stabbed the 24-year-old mother of two seven times and she died in hospital.

Murphy pleaded guilty to the murder, but he had a history of violence against women and had already served two years in jail for attacking one of his former partners.

Another gruesome case heard in court last August was that of Nadine Lott who was left “completely unrecognisable” after her former partner battered her on December 14, 2019.

The victim passed away just days later after being kicked, stabbed and beaten with a charger for a tyre pump during the attack.