Sexual Offences

Research showing that half of women and almost a third of men in Ireland have experienced sexual violence will be used as a baseline against which to measure government efforts to combat sexual violence, justice minister Helen McEntee has said. The Central Statistics Office (CSO) last week published

New laws to safeguard the privacy and anonymity of victims of sexual offences and suspects in sexual offence cases in Northern Ireland have come into effect from today. Under the Justice (Sexual Offences and Trafficking Victims) Act (Northern Ireland) 2022, Northern Ireland is now the only part of t

The High Court has refused relief to an ex-Dublin school teacher who attempted to prohibit his prosecution for 151 counts relating to alleged historic sexual abuse of pupils. The court found that, at 71 years old, there was no fear of incapacity, noting that civil servants have the right to work unt

Dublin Rape Crisis Centre (DRCC) has said it is disappointed that a wide-ranging new bill on sexual offences and human trafficking will not provide for all alleged victims to receive legal advice from the outset of criminal proceedings. The charity said it welcomed many provisions of the Criminal La

A wide-ranging bill introducing new standalone offences of stalking and non-fatal strangulation, increasing the maximum sentence for various offences and introducing new protections for victims has completed all stages in the Oireachtas. The Criminal Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill, which de

A wide-ranging bill strengthening the law around sexual offences and improves protections for victims of sexual offences and of human trafficking has been published. Among the main provisions of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Human Trafficking) Bill 2023 are changes to the law on consent, rem

Rape complainants in England and Wales will be given the opportunity to meet the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) staff involved in their case ahead of a trial in the latest move to guide them through the criminal justice system. The move aims to give them the chance to discuss what they can expect i

A 21-year-old woman who pretended to be a man to seduce a teenager into a relationship has been found guilty of sexual assault. Georgia Bilham, from Alpraham, Cheshire, was convicted of sexual assault, by kissing, at Chester Crown Court after approximately three hours of deliberation.

The Court of Appeal has increased the sentence for a man convicted of raping his two younger sisters as a teenager. The offending occurred while the man was aged between 14 and 19. He had initially been sentenced to six years’ imprisonment with the final 18 months suspended. Delivering judgmen

The Department of Justice has launched a new awareness campaign highlighting that threatening to share intimate images of another person is a crime with potentially serious consequences. The ‘Serious Consequences’ campaign — which will run on TV, cinema, local and national radio, d

Victims and survivors of domestic and sexual abuse are being retraumatised by having to simultaneously navigate separate criminal, family and child protection processes, according to a new report. The Report on the Intersection of the Criminal Justice, Private Family Law and Public Law Child Care Pr

Human rights lawyer Noeline Blackwell is to step down as CEO of Dublin Rape Crisis Centre (DRCC) this autumn. Ms Blackwell, a solicitor who previously led legal rights group FLAC and before that ran her own general law practice in Dublin, has been in the post since 2016.

One in five women in Ireland have been raped and more than half of women have experienced some form of sexual violence, according to research by the Central Statistics Office (CSO). The national statistics body yesterday published the findings of the Sexual Violence Survey (SVS) conducted in 2022 at

The Court of Appeal has quashed a conviction for sexual assault against a seven-year-old boy on the basis that the trial judge erred in failing to direct an acquittal. The complaint in the case was that the accused touched the boy’s penis and rubbed their bodies together. However, the court he

Legislation allowing for the electronic monitoring of sex offenders has been signed into law and will come into effect later this year. The Sex Offenders (Amendment) Act 2023 includes measures aimed at strengthening the management and monitoring of sex offenders in the community, including amendment