Increase in rapes reported over holidays

There has been an increase in rape and sexual violence over the Christmas period, groups working with the victims of such attacks have said.

Ten rapes were reported to the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre in the six-day period between December 27th and New Year's Day, according to its chief executive, Ellen O'Malley-Dunlop. This compares with seven reported rapes in the same period in 2005.

"These numbers are an increase on last year. It is not clear whether this is due to higher levels of reporting or whether there is more rape happening. But from our experience the violence associated with the rapes has increased. It's quite horrendous and it is definitely linked to increased availability of pornography," she said.

Ms O'Malley-Dunlop would not go into details about the nature of the violence but said it involved severe beatings and putting women into positions that "denigrated them as people, that dehumanised them". She said the acts perpetrated upon them "could not be made up" and had left therapists dealing with the women "extremely upset".

"The women are not seen as people by their attackers. People are glib about pornography and say it's harmless. It is not harmless," she said. "Study after study has shown the hugely negative impact pornography has on those who use it in terms of their attitude to women, its dehumanising of women and its portrayal of women as objects who enjoy being victimised."

She also said there was an increase in the number of people reporting past abuse and incest.

"We had four calls in a two-day period from women in the early 20s who had just told their families about abuse or being raped."

Fiona Neary, chief executive of the Rape Crisis Network of Ireland, said that while the centres had not collated figures for the Christmas period, the incidence of sexual violence "always increases at this time of year".

"There is no reason to suspect that the pattern emerging in Dublin is any different in the rest of the country. Women are more vulnerable at Christmas, given that people are socialising in higher numbers, and that is when woman are more vulnerable."

She also said there was an increase in the number of people calling about past sexual abuse, particularly incest, at Christmas and attributed this to the increased amount of time victims were often forced to spend with perpetrators at this time of year.