Ursula Meighan chair of the Workers Party Women’s Committee has called the 8.5% Decrease in Domestic Violence Prosecutions Extremely Disturbing.
Ms Meighan said whilst a slight increase in the number of convictions are to be welcomed it cannot compensate for the drop in prosecutions. Nearly 30,000 of our citizens have experienced and suffered domestic abuse over this past year. Ms Meighan added and we know this is not the real number, there are many who don’t report the abuse for a whole host of reasons. Fear, embarrassment, having to relate and detail their abuse over and over again, and this leads to many feeling they are not believed. There is also a major problem with how long it takes for a case to get to court.
The Workers Party at their International Women’s Day event heard first hand from a woman who not only survived her abuse but fought to get a prosecution and conviction against the perpetrator. She told the audience it was a long and torturous process, and she felt she was being re-traumatised at times.
The Workers Party is calling on the minister who has the responsibility to provide protection and safety for victims of gender based abuse and violence against women and girls. To put in place ring fenced funding and resources to tackle this problem, and to investigate the reasons for the drop in prosecutions. It would be a major concern if “those most in need of our justice system”had lost confidence in it.
Ms Meighan finished by saying women and girls who are suffering this abuse deserve better. No one should be “subjected to abuse in our society,” without the perpetrators being held to account, and facing the “consequences of their actions.”