The Aontú Leader Peadar Tóibín TD has called for increased sentencing for the perpetrators of gender-based and domestic violence. He was speaking in response to the publication of the Women’s Aid annual report.
Speaking today, Deputy Tóibín said:
“The report from Women’s Aid is deeply troubling. Some of the content and statistics are very difficult to read. It’s clear that the problem of domestic violence is getting worse. More women contacted the organisation last year than ever before in their fifty-year history. In some cases, the abuse these women experienced resulted in miscarriages, hypervigilance and homelessness. A third of the women were subjected to abuse by their ex-partner. Some we threatened with weapons, subjected to surveillance and threatened with the lives of their children. This is most appalling – the full book of the law needs to be thrown at the perpetrators of this most evil type of abuse”.
Deputy Tóibín continued: “Aontú want to see Gardaí trained properly in how to deal with this. One of the findings of the report was that 44% of women found the Gardaí unhelpful. This is not acceptable. In some cases, women feel trapped, unable to disclose abuse to officials, it takes courage to escape their abuse and seek help – the Gardaí need to be fully and properly trained in how to deal with anyone who has mustered up that courage to speak with them. There should be specific protocols in place for women who make disclosures. And the elephant in the room is, there are too few Gardaí”.
“The change to the sentencing guidelines for domestic violence cases is welcome, but I think we need legislative change here to ensure a mandatory minimum sentence for serious cases, to ensure that the changes to the sentencing guidelines are enshrined in legislation. If a partner abuses a woman to the point that she miscarries, or threatens her with her children’s lives, or seeks to prevent her disclosing the abuse, that individual deserves more than the current 3-year maximum prison sentence, in my opinion”, concluded Tóibín.
