Plea to legislate on rape within marriage rejected

LEGISLATION:FORMER MINISTER for justice Gerry Collins rejected a plea from the Council for the Status of Women to change criminal law to tackle rape within marriage.

In a submission to the Seanad in October 1978, the women’s council called for legislation to allow for the prosecution of a man for the rape of his wife and for changes to the law to disallow evidence on the sexual history of the complainant.

There had been much debate on the topic and politicians had called on the minister to adopt the submission.

He had been accused of dragging his heels on the legislation.

Papers on the minister’s speech to the Seanad in 1979 were included in a file from the Department of an Taoiseach released by the National Archives.

Mr Collins told senators he could not simply adopt the council’s report and draw up legislation based on it because the law needed to be examined critically by “experienced practitioners”.

He said he disagreed with the council when it claimed the incidence of rape was on the increase. The figures from 1978 showed a reduction of 12, down from 60 to 48. “It would be wrong to give the impression that simply by introducing changes in the criminal law we can radically alter criminal behaviour,” he added.

His examination of the council’s submission could not and would not be rushed, he said. New legislation on rape was enacted in May 1981, but marital rape did not become an offence until 1990.

According to the file, Mr Collins also came under pressure for comments he made on an RTÉ radio programme during the debate on the rape legislation issue. He told Tom McCaughren on Crime Report: "A number of rape incidents might never have happened if young girls were a little more careful in who they got lifts home from parties and discos from."

Defending his comments in the Dáil, having been vilified by “two women journalists” in the press, he said he made it clear he was referring to “some rapes” and had only said “perhaps” the rapes would not have taken place.