Rape Crisis Centre chief welcomes review of sexual assault trials

The chief executive of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, Noeline Blackwell, has welcomed a commitment from Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan to review all aspects of legal protection offered to complainants in rape cases.

Speaking to The Irish Times on Monday, Mr Flanagan said he believed it was appropriate to review all aspects of how "such deeply sensitive trials are conducted" and whether further protections should be offered to a victim of sexual assault.

Currently, rape victims act as witnesses in the State’s prosecution but are not entitled to their own legal representation, and this will come up for consideration.

Ms Blackwell told RTÉ’s News at One that in rape cases the complainant ended up sitting on their own while the prosecution had a job to do. The complainant would be called as a witness but the prosecution could not be seen to favour them or to ‘coach’ them in relation to their evidence.

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She said that very often the accused was represented by a skilled group of advocates including often an entire legal team, wheras the complainant was on their own with no experience of the court system or of being cross examined.

“They are there not really knowing what is coming at them, with no way of helping them to ensure that they give the best possible evidence to the court and that they present it in the best possible way,” Ms Blackwell said.

“That’s why we’re so pleased to see Minister Flanagan bringing forward this review. It is needed to identify how you protect complainants in cases like this where the real issue is something that is very intimate to both the accused and the complainant, and where one side is really well resourced to give their side of the story and the other absolutely is not.

“We’re not in any way trying to reduce the rights of an accused person in a serious criminal trial, all we’re saying is there are other people in the court, there are victims in the court, their rights also have to be respected, now more than ever.”

The Rape Crisis Centre provides an accompanying service which offers support in court, but they cannot legally represent the complainant. Ms Blackwell explained the service gives “support to somebody going to court, someone to sit with them, but that’s just someone to sit with them as a friend, somebody just minding them to an extent.”

She said it was important to protect victims’ rights to ensure that they are not retraumatised.

“Since last year we have enacted a Victims of Crime Act where part of the duty of the State is to ensure that victims aren’t retraumatised by the court process, we have a concern that the way these sensitive cases in sexual violence and domestic violence run that people are at serious risk of being retraumatised.”