A major new report released by Women’s Aid yesterday outlines what the frontline organisation says are significant failings by the criminal justice system when responding to domestic violence cases.

The organisation is calling for immediate implementation of the gold standard for data collection, an in-depth Government audit of the current criminal and family law systems and a reconfiguration to create a better process to deliver justice, safety and consistent experiences for victims of domestic violence.

The new report is the result of a two-stage project on women’s experiences of the criminal justice system, and includes analysis of media reports on sentencing in cases with a domestic abuse element.

The Sentencing Media Watch took place between May 2018 and April 2019 and attempted to fill the knowledge gap in the absence of official data on charges, verdicts and outcomes in criminal trials in the context of domestic abuse.

Sarah Benson, CEO of Women’s Aid, said: “Domestic violence is present in the criminal justice system and it is not confined solely to breaches of Domestic Violence Orders. The offences committed in intimate relationships are wide ranging and severe.

“Over 100 charges were pressed in the 65 cases that we have noted in the sentencing media watch part of our report. These charges included: assault, threats to kill, rape, false imprisonment, sexual assault, trespassing, firearms offences, abduction of a child and attempted murder.”

Although the organisation is “aware of the limitations of our Sentencing Media Watch and urge caution about drawing conclusions from the findings of the project in year one”, she said it allowed the organisation to “draw some tentative conclusions”.

The second strand of the report is based on in-depth consultation with 20 women whose partners were charged with crimes against them, which Women’s Aid said exposed a lack of “joined up thinking” within the legal system.

Ms Benson said: “There isn’t a specific offence of ‘domestic violence’ in Ireland, so crimes committed by intimate partners are prosecuted under a number of offences such as assault, sexual assault, rape, stalking, criminal damage.

“However, as data about the relationship between the perpetrator and the victim is not collected, it is not possible to count offences going through the criminal court that are in the context of domestic abuse.

“This lack of data is hugely problematic and the State is failing to meet its obligations on data collection on violence against women as outlined in the Istanbul Convention and its own National Plan on Combating Domestic, Sexual and Gender Based Violence. If we cannot see a problem then we cannot solve the problem.”

She added: “This report provides an opportunity for the Government to take the necessary steps to look at good practice and learning from other jurisdictions and make changes required to better service the thousands of people who are experiencing domestic abuse.

“Ireland has been trying to fit a square peg into a round hole for too long. It’s time for the system to adapt to the crimes of domestic abusers and hold them to account rather than forcing victims to trust a system that is not doing them justice.”