An Garda Síochána's Protective Services Units in Cork are "making an enormous difference" to the victims of sexual violence.
That's according to Mary Crilly of the Sexual Violence Centre Cork.
She was reacting to Garda figures that there has been a nearly 50 per cent increase in the number of sexual assaults reported in the city.
Chief Superintendent Con Cadogan told a meeting of the City Council's Joint Policing Committee that, between the start of January and the end of April, there were 46 reported sexual assaults.
The Echo is reporting today that the there 31 reported sexual assaults during the same time period in 2021.
The number of reported rapes jumped by over 40% from 14 during the first 4 months of last year, to 20 during the first four months of this year.
Speaking to RedFM News, Mary Crilly says that the Protective Services Units really help people to feel safer when reporting sexual crime:
"There's a new Protective Services Unit in North Cork that opened, over a year ago, in Fermoy. And there's a Protective Services Unit in Anglesea, in Dunmanway and in Fermoy. Those units really help people to report because there are specialist Guards in there in dealing with sexual crime. I think, when the word gets out that there are Guards there who know what they are talking about, and know how to investigate and how to interview, people are more open and more likely to come and speak to them, and even speak to them on a once-off, and then go ahead and proceed and sign a statement. I think that makes an enormous difference".
