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LAST UPDATE | 6 Aug 2020
A LONG-AWAITED report into the prosecution of sexual offences has said that providing separate legal representation to victims would “risk upsetting the well-established balance” during trials.
The report recommends that victims be given their own counsel if they are giving evidence of their sexual history but that such representation should not be in place elsewhere during a trial.
In a statement this morning, Minister for Justice Helen McEntee said that “developing an ambitious implementation plan is a priority” on foot of the recommendations in this report.
The report was completed following a review into the legal protections offered to complainants in sexual assault cases. The review was carried out by a five-person working group that was chaired by barrister and law lecturer Tom O’Malley.
The review was instituted by the previous justice minister Charlie Flanagan following the high-profile Belfast rape trial in 2018. In that trial, Ireland rugby players Paddy Jackson and Stuart Olding were acquitted of rape, as were two others who had been charged with lesser offences.
The 140-page O’Malley report makes a whole host of recommendations around providing support for victims and the training of legal practitioners, but it does not recommend separate legal representation for victims throughout the entire trial.
The Dublin Rape Crisis Centre has previously said that victims can be essentially “on their own” during rape trials.
In the report, the working group said it considered the legal representation issue but that, of those consulted on it, “none of them urged us very strongly to recommend its introduction”.
The report says there “must be equality of arms, in so far as that can be achieved, between the accused and the prosecution” and that “the introduction of separate legal representation for one category of witness throughout the entire trial would risk upsetting that well-established balance.”
The report goes on to state that a prosecutor must not prevent the accused from the getting a fair trial and that any counsel appointed to the victim would also be subject to that same standard.
The working group notes that prosecutors are not allowed “coach” the victim or any other other witness and that this restriction “would apply to any lawyer directly representing a victim”.
Sexual history
Under Irish law, alleged victims giving evidence cannot be asked about their sexual experience with persons other than the accused, except when such an application is made and a judge grants permission.
If such an application is made, victims are entitled to legal representation during that application. The working group is now recommending that this legal counsel continues to represent the victim “while the questioning is taking place”.
The report further recommends that an application to engage in such questioning should be made at a preliminary trial hearing and that the Legal Aid Board “be immediately informed”.
“The Legal Aid Board, in turn, should endeavour to ensure that the victim is represented by counsel of a level of seniority similar to that of counsel representing the prosecution and defence,” the report states.
Addressing whether an “outright ban” on questions about a victim’s sexual history could be implemented, the report states that this could “create the risk of an occasional miscarriage of justice”.
“Any statutory provision restricting the questioning of victims about their sexual history must attempt to strike a balance between ensuring a fair trial for the accused and respecting the victim’s rights to personal privacy and human dignity,” the report states.
On the wider issue of questioning victims, the report recommends that judges, barristers and solicitors be given specialist training to help them understand the experience of victims of sexual crime.
Other recommendations
The report makes a number of other significant recommendations about the prosecution of sexual offences.
The report recommends that victims in all trials for sexual assault offences should remain entitled to anonymity, irrespective of the outcome of the trial.
Accused persons in all trials for sexual offences should also be entitled to anonymity unless convicted, the report states. This anonymity is currently only in place for rape or aggravated sexual assault trials.
“If convicted, they may be identified unless to do that would lead to the identification of the victim,” the report recommends.
A similar review of rape trials in Northern Ireland was published last year and recommended that only close family members of the accused and alleged victim should be allowed attend.
The O’Malley report makes a similar recommendation. Currently, members of the public can be excluded from rape trials but this report recommends that this be extended to “trials of other sexual offences”.
The report also recommends that existing legislation preventing the naming of the accused and victims be extended to include social media.
The report also calls for a “court familiarisation service” for victims who are due to appear as witnesses.
The report makes a number of recommendations to reduce the delay in prosecuting sexual crimes. Among the recommendations is drawing up a “guideline on discounts for guilty pleas”.
“Criminal proceedings are obviously expedited where the accused pleads guilty at the
first reasonable opportunity, thereby avoiding the need for a trial or for fixing of a
trial date,” the report states.
The publication of this report comes over two years after it was first announced by Flanagan and after a number of delays.
Implementation plan
Minister McEntee said that she wanted to ensure that the “scourge of sexual violence” can be tackled effectively.
“We must work together to tackle and reduce the levels of these terrible crimes, and where an offence is committed, and where a wrong is done, we must ensure that all necessary supports are in place so that victims will feel safe and supported when they come forward,” she said.
To do this, we must have in place a victim-centred approach. I want the victims of sexual crimes to know that they will be listened to, that they will be treated with respect and dignity, and that they will be supported throughout the process.
She said a number of actions recommended in the report would be immediately prioritised.
This included working with the Legal Aid Board to ensure victims of sexual crime can access the legal advice and support they need, drafting legislation to provide for preliminary hearings to help avoid delay in sexual offence cases and the establishment of a single course to inform victims of their rights and the services available to them.
The minister added: “The content of the report will need careful analysis to determine a swift and effective policy response and implementation plan. I am keen to commence work on a number of actions immediately, and look forward to working with stakeholders, frontline partners and the NGO community on this.
“Developing an ambitious implementation plan is a priority for me as Minister for Justice.”
Speaking to RTÉ Radio One’s Morning Ireland, Dublin Rape Crisis Centre CEO Noeline Blackwell said that many of the recommendations were welcome and it was important that they are acted upon to provide the best supports to victims of sexual crime.
“It’s a recognition of how different sexual offences are from other forms of crime,” she said. “The recommendations [in this report] have a clear pathway to implementation.”
In a statement this morning, the Council of The Bar of Ireland welcomed the publication of the report.
“Along with its recommendations, it is a vital and important analysis of the current criminal justice system’s approach to sexual offences and vulnerable witnesses, and it will be foundational in ensuring that the justice system’s approach to such cases is effective, humane and respects the fundamental tenets of fairness before the law,” the Council said.
“While we broadly welcome the recommendations set out in the report, we would also caution that the provision of adequate resources and funding for the recommendations will be critical to the successful reform of the current system.”
- Additional reporting by Sean Murray, Hayley Halpin, Peter McGuire and Noteworthy.ie
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I think the Westernized definition of “Women’s rights” and “gender equality” are making a mockery of the legitimate struggles women face in the world. In Saudi Arabia women aren’t allowed drive a car. That’s a REAL problem and issue to be addressed. FGM is a REAL issue. Moaning about perceived under-representation in politics/media, and demanding undemocratic measures to appease this perception is a Non-issue. Its Misandry.
Hi Tony – just to point out, the under-representation of women in politics/media is not ‘perceived’, it is a fact.
16 per cent of the Dáil is female. Even if you doubled that, you would still not have gender equality.
Ireland ranks 24th out of the 28 EU member states when it comes to the percentage of female political representation: http://ec.europa.eu/ireland/ireland_in_the_eu/impact_of_eu_on_irish_women/index_en.htm
The vast majority of presenters (80 per cent to 90 per cent) on Irish radio station are male, with women typically on early morning or weekend slots, outside of prime time hours.
Also, here’s Women On Air’s website, in case you missed the link above. They’re not calling for ‘undemocratic measures’, as far as I can see. http://womenonair.ie/what-we-do/
According to women on air 1 in 3 presenters are women and not 80 or 80 %.
Also, equality is about equal opportunity and not equal numbers.
In the Dail for example, women ran as Independents at a rate of 15% in the last election. There is no barrier to anyone running as an independent.
Yet, the main parties ran candidates at closer to 30% (depending on the party). Therefore the main parties are already running women at far higher levels women are putting themselves forward at.
In fact, I would think considering the vast membership of almost any political party is usually male, if anything I’d imagine if research was carried out on that front, we’d find women were dramatically overrepresented as candidates in parties.
Sorry Aoife. I phrased that wrong. I know that women are in a minority in these fields. I was having a go at the idea that these issues are perceived by some as real “feminist” problems that are due to intentional and institutionalised sexism.
And I used the Saudi example to highlight legitimate institutional sexism.
Actually female independents ran at 8% while Labour had 27% female candidates and FF & FG were at 15%. So the major parties are putting women forward at 2-3 times the rate women put themselves forward
But Aoife talks about “representation”. Are we to assume that to represent women you must be a woman? Would you prefer if Sarah Palin was your TD rather than Daniel O’Connell? If you vote for someone because of their sex you’re a sexist, it’s as simple as that. You’re also stupid. Women are fully represented in the Dáil, by the people they vote for
In my own opinion it’s more a quality issue than a quantity one. Bar Miriam O’Callaghan, Mary Wilson and even Claire Byrne, the vast majority of female radio presenters I’ve heard are pretty woeful.
They tend to have this ‘yay sisters’ attitude which turns male listeners off. Most focus on mundane vox pop stuff and tend to shy away from anything serious. True, some of this may be down to the selection choices of the station chiefs but come on, if you constantly choose to recycle people like Ruth Scott, Sile Seoige, Kathryn Thomas etc then you’ll keep getting the same perception.
There are plenty of women out there who can lead serious debate – just go and find them.
When Miriam O’ Callaghan stepped in for John something or other for months last year, almost every guest she had on were women.
Personally, I’d much prefer gender balance in the content of the shows. We can say with absolute certainty mens issues and the social issues and problems facing them are underrepresented moreso than anything on Irish radio.
Iam enjoying listening to Jennifer McGuire on 2fm if truth be told.
I mostly watch women on the internet.
Niall, why do you think male issues aren’t high lighted? Genuine question. There are loads of male djs and hosts that can high light them, why don’t they?
Aoife, they’re not interested in facts or statistics, only in their own prejudices
If I wasn’t interested in statistics I wouldn’t have provided them.
Dell, I know you didn’t address that to me but for what it’s worth….
I think if a male DJ were to highlight “men’s issues” with the frequency that, for example, The Journal highlights “women’s issues” he’d be called a misogynist and ridiculed by people like, for example, Susan Daly, editor of The Journal. (I say this because she’s already part of a group called The Anti Room that do just that). Google “what about teh menz” and see for yourself
Also, I think people just aren’t conditioned to see unemployment, murder, assault, suicide, death at work, imprisonment and all the other issues that disproportionately affect men as “men’s issues”.
Thanks Etienne. Good points. do you think that sometimes the ridicule (and I’m not condoning it!) comes because sometimes men will hilight their issues on the back of an article that are hilighting issues that are predominantly female problems. say fgm, If someone were to write an actual article on say male circumcision, would it be ridiculed? also, and this is what my original question stemmed from, do you think a lit of men do not like their problems being aired or hilighted or are afraid of being ridiculed by other Men? like “man up” or something like that.
We don’t highlight men’s issues because, quite frankly, it is unbecoming and the last thing we want is a male version of feminism.
Well, taking the second part first, and this is just my opinion, I don’t think it’s a factor because if an article addressed a problem that men face as a group then it’d be hard to tell anyone to “man up”. I do think that attitude stops individual men talking about their individual problems though
A bigger issue is that people in general just don’t realise that “men’s issues” exist. There’s no men’s rights industry, compare that to the number of clearly identifiable professional feminists. Look at the hostility the Male Studies course in the University of South Australia faced, frequently from graduates of Women’s Studies courses. That hostility is replicated any time someone opens their mouth about, say, bias in the criminal courts. As soon as you question the feminist narrative you’re called “a misogynist”. And no-one wants that.
Which leads me in to your first point; comments on “Women’s Issues” articles. I’ve often left comments asking for the male side of the story to be told. The usual response is “this story is about women, why do you always talk about men in stories about women?” There’s two answers to that;
1. It’s hard to comment on stories about men’s issues, because there aren’t any
2. The frequency with which stories about women’s issues appear create a false picture of the world which deserves to be challenged. Take #bringbackourgirls for example. Michelle Obama et al are quick to tell us that the kidnappings are part of a war on women’s education. That’s a lie. It’s a war on education in general. This is what Boko Harem do to boys http://www.mediaite.com/online/why-did-kidnapping-girls-but-not-burning-boys-alive-wake-media-up-to-boko-haram/ But on that occasion the hashtagtivists were silent, because it doesn’t fit the story they want to tell
While I’m at it, since you mentioned circumcision, did you see all those stories about boys dying after contracting herpes from oral circumcision? Me neither
But Stephen, how do you propose they get dealt with? People can not deal with problems they are unaware of. I’m not a feminist by the way, or at least I don’t think I am. The issues that Etienne hilighted are huge. personally I think there may be far too much emphasis put on gender when dealing with all issues from domestic violence to unemployment and single parent issues. But, as society tends to be content in separating issues by gender (no idea why) I think the male side of things also needs to be hilighted.
Thanks for the reply Etienne. as I’ve said before I personally think most issues should be dealt with without gender coming into it at all. why aren’t journalists writing the articles about male issues is my next question? I’m not asking these questions to antagonise, I genuinely am curious as it makes no sense to me. also I was aware what boko haram do and did to those boys and for the life of me I do not understand why the hell it wasn’t hilighted more! Do you think that as a society we tend to have a protect the female mentality and so people use that instinct/conditioning to further their own causes? so in the case of free our girls, they actually no more care about the girls than they do the boys but have an agenda of their own?
Well that’s just it, we used to talk about women who are raped, women who are abused as if the maxim expressio unius est exclusio alterius never mattered. And the new one is “male violence against women”. Language is chosen to paint a certain picture
We SHOULD be talking about PEOPLE who are abused, and violence by PEOPLE against PEOPLE. Sex should be as relevant as skin colour when it comes to the crimes and suffering of individual people
Yeah Dell, that’s exactly what I think. Well, I’m sure people do genuinely want those girls freed but look at how they’ve ignored what happens to boys in Africa. Certain people are willing to ignore the horrific murders of scores of children lest it alter the picture they want us to have
Yes, im not saying that most don’t have their heart in the right place, but I wonder why only the girls got the press? Personally I think that putting genders on issues actually makes some issues worse and creates hostility between the sexes.
You’re right. Here we are talking about the slant on the reporting instead of the crime itself
On a positive note, Etienne. As more publications begin to move online due to the inevitable death of print media, it’ll cause a major shakeup because I think we’ve finally hit a turning point and men, and those actually interested in equality, those with brother, fathers, and sons – simply won’t tolerate not being heard for much longer.
It’s already happening.
And men make up the majority of readers on news site all around the world.
Is it not true, men are more likely to be interested in politics than women which would mean that there be less female candidates signing up, should we just put unqualified people in? would you rather women just be elected based on their gender? what about merit??
Merit hence the word Merit should I walk into a job and say hire me i am a man? oh of course not id be labeled sexist! that is what women quotas, are just an upper hand for women to get things handed to them!
Radio is a commercial entity. If you’re good you’ll get the job and hold the audience, if not, you won’t.
Radio has always been primarily a male dominated area. We have some fine female broadcasters.
In fact, per hours worked Marian Finnucane is by far the highest paid in the country.
However, I take the ‘women on air’ group with a grain of salt. I’ve seen previous articles from them before and they are feminist, agenda driven, nonsense. They make no sense, the research is utterly skewed and they have no credibility.
For example, the most listened to current affairs programme in the country is Drivetime, and has a female presenter. Women on air makes no attempt in their research to account for the audience reach numbers. Mary Daly may reach more of an audience than 10 of the other male presenters combined. But they choose to ignore that entirely. Ludicrous.
Nah, this group cannot be taken seriously, and are more about jobs for the girls than anything.
Good post.
Do women want to listen to women?
Can we demand gender parity in teaching & medicine?
Its becoming increasingly possible for a child to go through their educational career with only meeting the odd male teacher .
Won’t happen in education because the female teachers will resist it.
There are deeper concerns though, and the DOE does actually have within its legal capability the power to discriminate on gender grounds if it is for the benefit of students (I heard a senior civil servant say that to Pat Kenny recently on air when talking about the lack of male teachers).
Remember how they seethed at being called a “feminised” audience? Who cares if it’s true!
Here we go again,change the record.
No I can’t imagine a female George Hook,thanks very much I am having me dinner.
Though come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Hook in the same room as Joan Burton.
I’ve never seen Ender Kenny in a room with any journalist!
Too often intelligent men are left of the screen in place of big breasted bimbos trying to explain something they don’t understand.
Or other women that are not big breasted bimbos that can’t get a look in either. Remember when RTE wanted to drop the meteorlogical staff in favour clueless of pretty faces on the news?
There is only one way to fix this. It has to start with early education. We take all the boys aside and tell them and instruct them to take hair and shoes more seriously!
The keep out sign is probably there because all you want to talk about is gender inequality. If you don’t pick a different issue, what do you expect
Aoife why did you remove my sexist remark?? That’s being sexist towards me because I’m a man!
Gizmo, your sexist remark is still there.. Typical man, can’t find something right under your nose.. See what I did there? ;-)
I removed your sexist remark because… The clue is in the word ‘sexist’, Gizmo!
Fell I beg to differ, typical woman seeing things that aren’t there! And Aoife you’re on the ball this evening!
Dell!
Gizmo!
Gizmo, Seriously, if you are talking about the comment about the sandwich, that is still in the comments right in front of me, if it was something else then fair enough. maybe its a glitch with the app, often people say their comments are gone and they are still there on my app.
If you refresh the page they’ll disappear dell.
Yup Niall, did that and even completely came out of the app and back in, its still there. personally, I thought it was funny.
This positive gender based discrimination ticks me off. Women aren’t in politics coz they simply choose not to be, in vast numbers. Same as most men choose not to be air stewards or receptionists. Certain profiles suit the sexes.
Any woman who is in politics or hi rank biz or whatever, is there thru grit, vision and determination.
We are all created equal, just not the same..makes for a better world don’t ya know!!!
There’s no such thing as positive discrimination. There’s either discrimination or there isn’t
Etienne, I completely agree with that. if there are equality issues anywhere, giving people special privileges is not the answer. two wrongs do not make a right.
Whats stopping women in media, im of the belief that it should be the best person for the job, your asking why women are not how about start asking whats stopping women.
That is exactly what the aeticle is asking. Did you read it?
The suggestion is that women don’t put themselves forward.
A ‘keep out’ sign? How are the men supposed to get their teas and coffees so?
Because the perceived glass ceiling is such an issue, to some sections of society, trumping all others by the sounds of it. why don’t the women of this country found a political party with the soul purpose of getting parity with males in every sector of irish life? U have roughly 50% of the vote, use it and stop crying ffs. If anything it will show these feminists how little support they actually have and maybe can get some peace!!
If that happened then men would need to form a male only party otherwise women would completely run the country. This would lead to even further antagonism between the sexes. Then the great war of Men vs women would break out and then our species would become extinct
The horror
I doubt that. The Women’s a Coalition in NI didn’t spark any such reaction
have a all female line up no one bats an eye
have a all male line up and everyone goes bat sh*t crazy
Why was Rabbite at this one ? With an event like this I think Joan Burton would have been an ideal speaker. Well she has such a calming , soothing voice . I’m sure her dulcet tones would have kept the delegates enthralled for hours.
Newstalk get a bashing for its “all male” primetime line up, so how come its JNLR show positive results? I would add Nora Casey to the quality talent list with Miriam, Clare and Mary but don’t know if there’s anyone else as good. As for positive discrimination, those who benefit from it will be found out quickly if they don’t have the talent.
Like Norah Casey!
I sit corrected
have your say