MARIA AMO'S was 22 and a virgin the night she was twice violently raped in a car on the northside of Dublin.
She knew her attacker, and had gone for a drink with him and two friends. On the way home he dropped off the two friends - but stopped her getting out of the car.
He drove to a deserted area where, he told her, "you can scream all you like, but no one will hear you". He raped her twice before driving her home.
Ms Amos, now in her 40s, still remembers the attack vividly. "He got me by throat and said if you tell anyone I'll kill you." He was: "like an animal." The next morning she went to a Garda station to report the crime. Investigating officers took a statement and she was sent to the Mater Hospital for a medical examination.
In August, 1972, six months after the rape, the man was brought before Kilmainham District Court and charged with the crime. The trial never took place, and in 1977 the State decided not to continue with the prosecution. Ms Amos has since seen her attacker several times, and says he has "sneered" at her on the street.
There may be good reasons why the prosecution never went ahead, although a Garda source said the nolle prosequi was entered simply because the accused man was thought to be abroad and there was no prospect of his being found.
Whatever the reasons for the failure to prosecute, Ms Amos's distress has clearly been increased by the fact that she has had no explanation of what happened. The limited communication from the DPP's office did not begin to offer, an explanation. A letter from a Garda superintendent stated simply that Ms Amos's statement after the rape was "not available", but did not say what had happened to it.
It is commonly thought that very old offences cannot be tried. But ink other cases the passage of time has apparently not been considered a hindrance. A Dublin man currently on bail is facing sentences for charges of unlawful carnal knowledge, rape and sexual assault dating from 1971. In Co Tipperary last month, a man was sentenced for an indecent assault in 1977. Another man is facing charges for sexual abuse offences allegedly committed between 1967 and 1993. And in February the Supreme Court said a man should be tried on charges of rape and indecent assault even though the offences allegedly took place between 1963 and 1973.
The number of rapes reported to gardai has continued to rise - despite a reduction in other types of crime. But the number of prosecutions and convictions has been falling, according to a report on violence, against women and children, presented to the Minister for Justice, Mrs Owen, last year.
The report noted that of almost 500 rapes reported to the Garda in the six years to 1991, only half led to a trial, and 37 (seven per cent) convictions.
According to the Rape Crisis Centre director, Ms Olive Braiden, the system ensures that when a case is dropped the victim is told "nothing that gives any comfort". A civil case involves a lower burden of proof than the criminal courts, but the victim would need up to £30,000 for such a case and might be wasting her time if the accused person had no money to pay compensation.
Ms Braiden said the single most useful reform of the system would be to allow the victim to have legal representation in court. "It lessens the trauma of the case for the victim. And she feels protected so she makes a better witness," Ms Braiden says.
Ms Amos says she was naively trusting of the criminal justice system when she went to identify her attacker in court. After the hearings at which the man was charged, she expected the law would take its course. "I thought if something bad happened, you put it in the hands of the law and he gets locked up," she said.