The number of people who faced prosecution for rape increased by over a third last year.
There was also a 15% rise in prosecutions planned for other sexual offences.
These freedom of information figures show the steady increase in cases the DPP has directed for prosecution for sexual offences in recent years.
In 2010, they decided to prosecute 68 people for rape.
By 2019, this had almost doubled to 124 and there was a further 35% increase last year, to 168.
Rape survivor Debbie Cole says the figures are very low, noting “It’s a very small percentage of reports that actually make it to a trial, it’s ridiculous, the country is seriously letting down rape victims”.
The DPP directed that 254 people be prosecuted for other sexual offences in 2010, rising to 459 in 2019 and to 530 last year.
Barrister Morgan Shelley says it’s very difficult to convict a suspect of these offences; “For the DPP to direct that somebody be prosecuted they have to be satisfied that there is a reasonable prospect of the prosecution being successful and in these cases they can be notoriously difficult to prosecute and so in those circumstances the DPP won’t put a victim through giving evidence or going through a trial if they think that there’s no realistic prospect of it being successful”.
Dublin Rape Crisis Centre says the new figures suggest only 14% of rapes reported to the Gardaí end up in court.
