Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan will establish a domestic violence register of those convicted of rape or serious sexual assault, comparable to lists published of tax offenders.
He told the Dáil that the only way the public knows about such cases is if a journalist happens to be in court or if a victim waives their anonymity. “We have a situation in this country where we publish a list of tax offenders. We don’t publish it of people being convicted of rape or serious sexual assault.”
Mr O’Callaghan said he considers it “unfair to every victim to carry that burden” of having to go public. “I think that’s too much for them and I think we need to have a system in place where there is disclosure of information on people who’ve been convicted of serious offences”.
The Minister also said he hoped to bring a memorandum to Government next month for legislation on what campaigners have called “Valerie’s law”, to allow courts to remove guardianship rights from parents or guardians who kill or seriously harm another parent or guardian of their child.
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He also promised to review the law on the disclosure of counselling notes.
Mr O’Callaghan was responding to a private member’s motion on gender-based violence introduced by People Before Profit Solidarity TD Ruth Coppinger, calling for a range of measures including legislation to prevent access to counselling records by the accused and their defence team.
Survivors of gender-based violence and families of victims attended in the visitors’ gallery for the two-hour debate.
The motion also called for the implementation of Valerie’s Law; an end to the practice of character references before sentencing for those convicted in cases of gender-based violence; and the introduction of a domestic violence register dubbed “Jennie’s Law”, to make available information about anyone with a conviction for domestic violence.
Ms Coppinger said there should be compulsory training of the judiciary about sexual and gender-based violence and the practice of “rape myths and victim-blaming” being put forward by defence legal teams in court cases.
The Dublin West TD said the biggest danger to a woman or girl is violence and that every 10 minutes a girl or woman is murdered by a male relative, partner or family member somewhere around the globe. A total 274 women have died violently in Ireland since 1996 up to February 7th of this year.
Mr O’Callaghan later reiterated the commitments at the launch of a new awareness-raising campaign by the domestic violence agency Cuan, which will see advertisements run in cinemas, on television, radio and on social media. Titled The Hardest Stories, it hopes to encourage abuse survivors to seek support and tell their stories.
Nicola Hanney, a survivor of domestic violence, said telling her sister gave her back a sense of control.
“Finding your voice is so important because we lose it along the way,” she said. ”When other people are telling you how to think and feel, you actually don’t know your own mind. My mind felt like broken glass. I didn’t know what was right and wrong. I was blaming myself, which I think most women do ... I just want women to know, ‘It’s not your fault’.”
Ciara Mangan, who was raped at a party 12 years ago by a colleague, said she “carried” the secret of her ordeal for 10 months. Speaking at the Cuan event, she said telling her parents “was like someone lifted an entire house off my back ... I was trying to do my Leaving Cert as well. I felt release..
“I said, ‘Please just deal with it, take it off me’ ... I was carrying it for so long, I felt like I was giving over this huge problem to someone else.”
