"My counselling notes were taken and used by the defence, not to help the alleged perpetrator at the time - They were used to belittle me as a mother, as a partner and as a woman. They weren't used as evidence, absolutely not. In my case, the prosecution didn't talk about my PTSD, my nightmares, my flashbacks. They didn't talk about anything like that."
"Jim O'Callaghan could start to listen. The changes he's talking about bringing in - where he's saying only under extreme circumstances will counselling notes be looked at, isn't good enough. The defence used the notes. And it's absolutely, it's so horrendous and dangerous and it's actually causing victims psychological harm."
Survivors of rape and gender-based violence are calling for participation in International Women's Day marches across the island, marching in solidarity with Epstein survivors and for their younger selves. A critical issue driving this action is the unauthorized access of private therapy notes by defence teams in sexual offence cases. The Dublin Rape Crisis Centre has urged the Justice Minister to establish a presumption against counselling note disclosure. Survivors and therapists have protested proposed legislative changes as insufficient, delivering shredded counselling notes to the Department of Justice. Paula Doyle, a rape survivor whose counselling notes were misused in court to discredit her character rather than serve as evidence, emphasizes that current protections are inadequate and cause additional psychological harm to victims.
#sexual-violence-survivors #counselling-notes-disclosure #legal-reform #international-womens-day #victim-protection
Read at Irish Independent
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