Dublin rape centre logs record level of calls

Callers to the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre (DRCC) exceeded 16,000 last year up - the highest level ever, with a significant rise in teenage callers.

The centre said yesterday that services for victims were overstretched, and the number of victims prepared to report child sex abuse or adult rape remained very low.

This is largely due to "very archaic" judicial attitudes, and because most abusers are either related to or known by victims, said the centre's chief executive Ellen O'Malley Dunlop.

Just 95 cases were reported to the Garda by callers to the DRCC. Five went to trial, resulting in four convictions and one acquittal.

Calls about childhood sex abuse accounted for some 45 per cent of callers, a 9 per cent rise on the previous year with a "dramatic" increase in calls in late 2005 after publication of the Ferns report on child sex abuse. Some callers were elderly and spoke of their ordeals for the first time.

From callers, the centre established that 96 per cent of child abusers were relatives or known to their victims, while 65 per cent of adult victims were raped or abused by relatives or other persons they knew.

Only one in four victims of child abuse reported to the Garda, while one in three victims of adult rape/sexual assault made reports. Abuse by a stranger was five times more likely to be reported.

Last year marked the 25th anniversary of the founding of the DRCC and it was "very disappointing" that the need for the centre's services was greater than ever and that it must still protest for adequate resources, the centre's chairman Brendan Spring said.

While the centre received public funding from the Health Service Executive (HSE), this had to be greatly supplemented through fundraising, Ms O'Malley Dunlop said. There was no funding for education, which was vital to tackle "the abusive use of power which is at the root of rape and sexual violence".

DRCC head of clinical services Angela McCarthy said she was deeply concerned by the rising and "horrific levels" of physical and sexual violence reported.

Current services were failing to meet the needs of victims and just €3 million would set up two further sex assault treatment units to add to the four in the country, she said. Such units were urgently required, given the "shocking" 28 per cent rise in victims attending the sex assault treatment unit at Dublin's Rotunda hospital last year.

Yesterday marked the launch of the DRCC's 25th anniversary report for 2005. It disclosed the DRCC received some 16,000 calls in 2005, up 11 per cent on 2004, of which some 12,000 were deemed genuine and 3,849 were first-time callers. Just over half of the calls (51.7 per cent) related to adult rape and sexual assault, and 45.7 per cent were about childhood sex abuse. The remainder related to sexual harassment, drug rape, ritual abuse and suspected abuse.

Most callers were female (86 per cent), from Dublin (76.2 per cent) and aged between 18 and 40 (57 per cent). However, there was a significant rise in the number of callers under 17 (one in five or 17.8 per cent, with 4.5 per cent under 15) and from outside Dublin (23.8 per cent compared to 10 per cent in 2004).

Some 10 per cent were aged over 50, while 14 per cent of callers were men. The centre reactivated a men's support group last year.