Sinn Fein councillor Sandra Duffy
The party’s group leader on DCSDC was commenting after a report by the Criminal Justice Inspectorate said processes for dealing with rape and other serious sexual crimes in the north take too long, are too expensive and fail to deliver an acceptable outcome for victims.
The report says more than 3,150 sexual violence and abuse offences such as rape, sexual assault and child abuse were recorded by police during the year 2016-17.
Of these, 823 were offences of rape, with 15 of the defendants convicted of rape when the case went to court – a conviction rate of 1.8%.
Sandra Duffy said: “The findings of this report provide stark reading and are totally unacceptable.
“Reporting a rape or sexual assault is always going to be a traumatic and difficult experience. Victims, who may have waited months, years or decades to report the offences against them, should not be let down by the system.
“It is Sinn Féin’s view that any recommendations emerging from the current review into the handling of rape and sexual crimes and the conduct of trials should be properly implemented and resourced in order to reduce the anxiety for victims and delays in case progression.”
