Rape victims unite to call for change in law
Minister is urged to apply 2012 abuse law retrospectively
A GROUP of rape victims are to call on the Government to extend the scope of a law that allows those who withold information about sexual abuse to be jailed.
The 2012 Act of Withholding Information currently does not apply to cases from before it was enacted, and the victims want it to be applied retrospectively.
High-profile survivors Shaneda Daly and Fiona Doyle along with the Witherow sisters, who recently helped jail their stepfather John Joe Patterson for sexual abuse, will launch a campaign on January 30 at the Clarion Hotel in Limerick.
Supported by the Rape Crisis Network, the women have come together to camshe paign on the law. They have written to Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald asking her to attend the conference and meet with the women about their requests.
Shaneda Daly said: ‘Frances Fitzgerald has always spoken out on women’s issues, she is also the instigator of the new sexual offences bill. We believe she would be a good listener and if gets into Government again we would really like her to be at the heart of these changes.
‘We would like to see the terms widened to allow anyone withholding information about sexual abuse to be jailed prior to 2012.’
As children, Laura, Emma and Vanessa Witherow say they told their mother Frances they were sexually abused by their step father at the family home in Thurles, Co. Tipperary, but their pleas fell on deaf ears. Vanessa said: ‘She hid him for years, she needs to be held accountable.’
Shaneda Doyle’s father Harry Daly was jailed for 15 years for repeated rape of his daughter.