Surviving Sexual Assault In Northern Ireland
Specific Problems Faced By Survivors Of Sexual Assault In Northern Ireland
Rape At Gunpoint
1. There is a significantly higher proportion of adult women raped at gunpoint in Northern Ireland than in the rest of Ireland or the UK. Contacts and comparisons with both Dublin and London Rape Crisis Centres confirm this both statistically and verbally. Cases of rape at gunpoint involve weapons which are both legally and illegally held. Being raped at gunpoint in Northern Ireland is a qualitively different experience than in the Republic or Britain because the rapists possession of a weapon takes on a different, more powerfully sinister meaning in the NI context. The woman believes that the crime has been committed against her on behalf of, or with the complicity of an army or force. (Whether her belief is realistic or not is immaterial with regard to the psychological damage done to her)
Guns Used Against Children In The Home
2. Adult survivors of child sexual abuse in Northern Ireland also disclose the use of or threat of weapons more often than their UK or Southern Irish counterparts. In the most extreme of these cases one eight year old girl had an illegal gun put in her mouth by her abusing father, another was taken into a field at a farm outside a small country town and watched her pet dog being shot dead with the threat that the same would happen to her or her mother if she did not comply to his demands, she was 10 years old at the time. Another client of ours who courageously spoke publicly last year, Karen O’Hara was raped by a member of the UDA at gunpoint. Her husband and babysitters were forced to watch. The UDA issued a death threat against him and he killed himself in prison. His death compounded the already severely debilitating psychological problems resulting from the horrific rape.
Sectarian Rape
3. Sectarian rapes do happen here, however thankfully they tend to be rare. Men in all cultures tend to rape within their own community except in cases of full scale war. A recent example however of an alleged sectarian rape which we are dealing with (to be heard in November in court) is of a woman who was almost strangled to death and raped by a soldier the excuse he gave her afterwards was “I thought you were a Fenian”
Gang Rape By Paramilitaries
4. Gang rapes by paramilitaries whether they are sanctioned by the organisation or not, (most are not) are not uncommon and most are not reported for understandable reasons. One case where a woman approached us for help involved a grandmother who was in the company of men who were from a political party which has links with an illegal organisation. She was drugged, kidnapped then raped by four men. No amount of persuasion by myself could induce her to report the attack to the police or even to allow me to approach a senior figure in the relevant political party.
Our Centre also dealt with the case of gang rape by the INLA in Divis flats where a woman was repeatedly raped by at least twelve men while the flats residents were too terrorised to respond to her screams. This case was reported to the police, unfortunately not one of the perpetrators were ever brought to justice. At least not through the legal system.
Pornography and “Freedom Fighters”
5. Just as paramilitary organisations in Northern Ireland deny that they deal in drugs they will deny their involvement in the distribution and making of pornography. One young woman in Belfast was given the choice of taking part in such a video, if she refused they told her they would use her young primary school age daughter instead of her. She made the choice to protect her child at great cost to herself. Thankfully she belatedly got the help she needed from Social Services to move away and start a new life.
Threat Of Paramilitary Violence
6. While actual rape using a weapon only accounts for perhaps one in a hundred rapes and gang rapes about 10%, the very fact that we live in a country where a significant amount of adult males possess guns or are part of an organisation which has access to weapons means that it is easier for men to threaten victims and ensure their silence. A young gay man raped by a member of a paramilitary organisation disclosed to our counsellors last year “He didn’t even have to threaten me, he knew that I knew who he was and how high up he was and that I would never tell.’’ Other survivors who themselves have fathers or husbands with paramilitary connections are afraid to disclose rape or abuse in case their partner or father takes the law into his own hands.
Culture Of Fear - An Armed Patriarchy
7. It is not necessary for a man to actually be a member of an armed organisation to instil an abnormal fear over and above what is normal in a rape victim. About 20% of our clients will say that the perpetrator has said he is a member of an armed organisation, very often he is lying. Nevertheless by the time that women find out that the perpetrator is not connected, no forensic or corroborative evidence exists to facilitate a prosecution of the perpetrator. “He named a few fellas I know are high up down our road so I believed him” would be a fairly typical response we hear on a sickeningly regular basis.
Even if the perpetrator says absolutely nothing to suggest paramilitary involvement or are not members of the security forces because we have lived in a culture of fear or what Eileen Evason so accurately defined as an”armed patriarchy” many women will still not report - not for all the typical and ordinary reasons which any rape crisis centre is accustomed to hearing, but because she simply believes that there is a possibility that he may be a member. “He drinks in the ------ Tavern so and I know a lot of IRA ones drink in there” is the kind of reason given for not reporting by as many as half of all our clients.
Surviving Sexual Assault & Political Violence
8. Survivors of rape and sexual abuse in Northern Ireland have to deal with all the typical psychological sequelae associated with surviving sexual assault. We have found however that even with those whose abuse/rape had no specific connection with paramilitaries or the political situation that several have separately been victims of the troubles. Being a victim of the troubles is often a compounding factor of their trauma and makes their recovery much more difficult with added complexities.
For example one of our survivors groups participants discovered that almost all of them had direct experience of political violence (names changed)
Lorraine - Sexually abused as a child aged 4 to 17. The daily catalogue of abuse she suffered included full intercourse and anal rape. She had a gun put in her mouth and was threatened with death when she was 15 years old. Her crime against the community was bringing a Catholic friend into the area.
Aine - Raped by a boy her own age. There was not enough evidence to prosecute him. She was also almost caught in a bomb blast and saw a friend being “knee-capped”.
Meadbh - Physically abused by her mother she was placed “in care’’ aged 3, from where she was taken for seaside trips by Father Brendan Smyth, she was raped as a teenager by an older man who she believed to be in the Provisional IRA so she didn’t tell the police even though they found her as a runaway staying in his home.
Teresa - Sexually abused by her father from she was 7 to 14 years old she also witnessed a soldier being shot dead almost beside her. She had to relive the trauma in court and felt under threat from her own community.
Anne - Sexually abused by neighbour as a child. She was making successful progress in therapy with the Centre until she was subjected to both sexual and sectarian harassment at work which she had to leave.
Trusting The Police ?
9. Regardless of the fact that the RUC Care Units carry out a highly professional job in a sympathetic way, it is an unfortunate fact that a significant proportion of the population because of our history, are reluctant to report any type of crime lest their family or community regard them as traitors. Survivors in Northern Ireland from the nationalist community very often feel that they cannot trust the police. This means that the perpetrator is not brought to justice or that they seek recourse to other forms of justice that no person in a civilised society should feel compelled to resort to. Because our Centre does believe that the CARE Units do treat all survivors with dignity and respect regardless of their religion our policy is no longer one of non-directiveness, as it was before the Units existed but of actively encouraging and supporting survivors to report the crimes committed against them. However we do believe that work needs to be done with communities to improve relationships with the RUC regarding dealing with crimes of sexual violence. Our centre would be well placed to carry out such work if resources were made available to our organisation.
We would suggest that a decrease in police work as a result of the Peace Process should enable the NIO to target more resources to the CARE Units who could benefit from more staff and resources.
In a recent case which we attended involving a mother and child both sexually abused by the same relative, the West Belfast mother did report to Grosvenor Road Care Unit. The officers involved built up not only a very successful case leading to the perpetrators imprisonment but an excellent relationship with both the child and adult victims. However this mother still could not let the RUC into her home and could only meet them ’round the corner’ going to court. She also expressed a fear that one of the officers may be shot while in her area on her case.
In individual counselling we have encountered several people who apart from the sexual trauma they have survived have also had relatives killed, one of our clients was shot dead in a car fired on by the army in a joy riding incident she was seventeen. Just this year we dealt with a woman whose niece around eight years old was shot by the paramilitaries in a feud, she was trying to cope with this horrific murder at the same time she had just found out that someone else very close to her was seriously sexually and physically abused as a child.
Humanity In Protecting The Community
10. We have had contact with three political parties who are associated with paramilitary groups and discussed non-violent ways of dealing with the very contentious issue of sex offenders in the community. We have also met with several community groups regarding this issue and held a conference last year to help instil confidence within communities regarding police response to sexual assault. We would like to carry out further work to ensure that communities feel confident in protecting their children without using methods which dehumanise themselves.
Justice For Northern Irish Survivors?
11. The legislation governing rape in NI has not yet been brought into line with the rest of the UK or indeed caught up with the twenty-six counties. A man can endure forced anal sex in this jurisdiction but the perpetrator will not be charged with rape. Possibly because of their involvement with legal issues concerning the political situation in NI there is little understanding among both Barristers and the Judiciary on the specific problems relating to both adult and child victims of sexual abuse. Changes in legislation need to be addressed and the legal profession require training on the needs and rights of survivors. Our Centre would wish to be involved with both these important issues.
Who Benefits from ‘The Troubles?’
12. Sex Offenders in this country benefit from the 50% remission system introduced because of the political situation so in effect serve less time than British perpetrators, this causes unnecessary trauma for victims.
Survivors Of Abuse Paying For Drumcree
13. The Statute Of Limitations on compensation for survivors is strictly adhered to in Northern Ireland. Sir Patrick Mayhew at a meeting with our Centre and the Progressive Unionist Party when questioned on this stated clearly and in these words “Northern Ireland will pay for Drumcree” He refused to use his powers of discretion as the Home Secretary does in England to make exceptional payments where good reasons exist for out of time claims. We had hoped that a change in government might also mean a change of heart but unfortunately this has not been the case. Northern Irish survivors of child sexual abuse are being discriminated against.
Weapons Of War ?
14. Decommissioning and demilitarisation are not Red Herrings or issues with which to score points as far as our agency is concerned, we provide a voice for the most vulnerable and silent people in our society. Organisations in possession of such weapons must exercise responsible control over what their firearms are used for (preferably by handing them in or destroying them) or take responsibility for what happens to the women and children abused at the point of their guns. Survivors deserve an unarmed civilian police force which both communities can trust.
When The State Is The Perpetrator
15. It is important to recognise that during the political violence over the last 30 years that the state has been a perpetrator of sexual assault within the prison system. Under the guise of security measures, ie, intimate body searches, both men and women, political prisoners, primarily republicans but also loyalists were sexually assaulted in brutal and violent ways in order to humiliate and degrade them in an attempt to break their spirit.
Picking Up The Pieces - Existing On The Crumbs
16. Our Centre is one of the busiest, yet one of the most inadequately funded in all of Ireland and also does not receive the level of statutory funding available to the major city rape crisis centres in Britain. Is this a result of the “cost of the troubles”?
The political unrest and resultant violence in Northern Ireland has had a massive impact on how survivors here experience and conceptualise their abuse. It is often the deciding factor on whether or not they seek redress through the criminal justice system. It has had a profound affect on our clients and our work. We deal with problems that no other rape crisis centre in a western European country would be faced with. The level of terror experienced by a significant proportion of our clients often presents what at the worst times may appear to be insurmountable barriers on the road to recovery. However we know that with support and counselling most survivors are able to begin to gain strength and recover to a point where they feel they are living a life which is normal - most do not want anything more than this.
17. Money is pouring into Northern Ireland from Europe and America quite rightly much of it is directed toward those who have been either victimised during the “troubles” or who have been imprisoned as combatants in the armed struggles.
A lot of funds are being directed to organisations for cross-community and cross-boarder work especially to those who previously only worked within their own community and culture.
While all this is commendable and necessary we often feel that our organisation is being penalised because we have always worked with women from both sides of the political divide (and none) in both our collective, workers and with the clients.
We hope that the survivors of sexual assault for which we as an organisation are often the only voice, will not be forgotten in the very difficult and painful task we all have of recognising and remembering all those who have died or survived through the trauma of all forms of violence.
Eileen Calder MSSc
Rape Crisis & Sexual Abuse Centre, Northern Ireland