Victims launch blistering attack on Minister’s proposed amendment to victim protection bill

VICTIMS and survivors of sexual violence across Limerick and Ireland issued a blistering condemnation of the Minister...

VICTIMS and survivors of sexual violence across Limerick and Ireland issued a blistering condemnation of the Minister for Justice’s proposed amendments relating to the disclosure of counselling, medical, and therapeutic records in sexual offence trials.

Survivors say the amendments — presented as protective measures — instead reinforce a legal framework that remains deeply traumatising, fundamentally imbalanced, and overwhelmingly weighted in favour of perpetrators.

The proposed changes would continue to allow deeply personal counselling, medical, psychological, and social work records to be sought through court applications in sexual violence trials, despite years of advocacy from survivors, frontline organisations, therapists, and human rights experts warning of the devastating psychological impact such practices have on victims.

“For many survivors, counselling is the only place where they feel safe enough to begin to process trauma. The idea that these deeply personal conversations can later be dissected in court is psychologically devastating. It impacts reporting. It impacts healing. It impacts survival,” a statement from the Victims Voices survivor’s group says. “Therapy notes are not evidence”.

Limerick survivor Sonya Stokes said: “Survivors should not have to sacrifice their mental health records to access justice. Healing should never become evidence for cross-examination.”

Fellow Limerick survivor Leona O’Callaghan added: “This framework continues to send a dangerous message to survivors — that your recovery may later be used against you.”

Shaneda Daly, a survivor from Shannon, County Clare, added: “Victims deserve protection, dignity, and compassion. What is being proposed falls far short of that.”

Executive Director of Rape Crisis Mid West, Siobhan O’Leary, says there needs to be a comprehensive protocol for how sex criminals are dealt with post release.

“They have served their sentence – that is accepted. But there has to be legislation in place that protects the survivors and not the survivors alone. If someone has committed a violent crime then there is an issue of public safety for everyone and that has to be addressed because currently it’s not,” she told the Limerick Post .

The organisation has dealt with many survivors who are suffering the life-long impact of what was done to them.

Ms O’Leary agrees there are many areas that need to be addressed to bring the law into line with the reality of what abuse victims go through.

“There are so many issues, including the use of the victims’ counselling notes in the court case, a right to survivors having information about where the abuser is. We are are under no illusion that the set of circumstances facing the survivors is currently in any way acceptable.”