Over 60% of domestic violence offenders get suspended sentence

Up to 62 per cent of prosecutions for domestic violence end with the offender receiving a fully or partially suspended sentence, a study from Women’s Aid suggests.

The group analysed media reports of domestic violence cases in the criminal courts over a 12-month period in 2018 and 2019. Women were the victims in 63 out of the 65 cases (97 per cent) with over half of the incidents occurring in the victim’s own home.

Over a third of cases involved violence at the hands of former partners “demonstrating that leaving an abusive relationship does not always end the abuse”, said Women’s Aid in the report Unheard and Uncounted.

Children were part of the household in 60 per cent of cases and in five cases the child was injured.

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Out of the 65 cases analysed, 41 involved physical injuries ranging from bruising to more serious harm requiring hospitalisation.

In a quarter of cases, the victim was strangled or otherwise made unable to breath. Weapons were used in a similar proportion of incidents.

Researchers noted a third of cases occurred in the context of a history of domestic violence and in 15 cases an order had previously been made under the Domestic Violence Act.

A sentence was imposed in 50 cases, of which 45 were prison terms which ranged from one month to life. Of these 45 prison sentences, 32 were reported as suspended (seven fully and 25 in part).

Women’s Aid conceded the study was limited as it had to rely on media reports of cases rather than official statistics.

The relationship between victims and attackers is not recorded in court statistics, it said, and there is a general lack of data and research on the topic of domestic violence cases in the criminal justice system.

“Women’s Aid would have liked to be able to compare sentencing of crimes occurring in a domestic violence context with the same crimes more generally. This has proven impossible because of the lack of accurate sentencing data,” the report states.

As part of the research, Women’s Aid also interviewed 20 women who had been victims of domestic violence about their experiences with the justice system.

Reaction to justice system

Respondents complained about inconsistent responses from the Garda. Some gardaí were excellent in dealing with victims while others were very poor, states the report. Women reported gardaí being rude, not taking them seriously, not trying to find their attacker and trying to minimise the seriousness of the incident. Other gardaí were much more helpful and had a good understanding of the dynamics of domestic violence, according to the report.

Women found the court process prolonged and stressful “and there is a lack of support for victims before, during and after criminal trials”. Most women believed the sentence imposed on their attackers did not reflect the seriousness of the crime, the report states.

“Most women did not believe that the criminal justice process had made them safer.”

Women’s Aid made a number of recommendations for reform including the drafting of sentencing guidelines for judges in domestic abuse cases and the introduction of measures to make it easier to refuse bail to violent abusers.

• The Women's Aid 24-hour national freephone helpline can be reached at 1800-341900