A HELPLINE for victims of sexual assault received more than 4,000 contacts from first-time callers last year, an increase of more than 40 per cent.
The dramatic increase in first-time callers to the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre helpline has been attributed to the release of the Ryan and Murphy reports.
Speaking at the launch of the centre’s annual report, chief executive Ellen O’Malley-Dunlop said there was a spike in first-time callers in May and June after the Ryan report, which examined institutional child abuse, was published. In November and December there was another spike in first-time callers after the Murphy report, which examined sexual abuse in the archdiocese in Dublin, came out.
Some cases related to incidents more than 60 years ago that the callers had never spoken of to anyone, Ms O’Malley-Dunlop said.
The rape crisis centre provides a national helpline, counselling services and court accompaniment for victims of sexual abuse.
The report found the centre’s 24-hour helpline received more than 14,000 calls in 2009, up by 12 per cent on 2008, and almost 11,000 calls were genuine. Some 82 per cent were from women and 18 per cent were from men. More than 40 per cent of genuine callers were ringing for the first time and over half of these first-time calls related to incidents of past child abuse.
