Sexual assault reporting is “so low in Galway” it was “excluded from the Garda report” received by councillors and community representatives at the Joint Policing Committee this week.
The low levels of reporting have been highlighted by Green Party Galway City West councillor Pauline O’Reilly. She said the main reason reporting of assaults was so low was due to the “perception that there is a lack of prosecution”.
She said the gardaí are doing “excellent work” in “continually reaching out to encourage victims to come forward”, but said it was vital to be honest about the percentage of successful prosecutions on an ongoing basis, “as the only way to encourage more people to come forward”.
Statistics from the Central Statistics Office and the Irish Courts system reveal that nationally 90 per cent of recorded rapes and sexual assaults end in something other than a conviction.
Cllr O’Reilly also noted that the reason the sexual assaults were not included in the report for councillors was in order to ‘protect the identity of victims”.
