Rebecca Clarke was left wondering “why did I even report this?” when a decision was made not to prosecute her case alleging sexual assault.
Ms Clarke was allegedly sexually assaulted a few years ago. She reported the incident and said gardaí were “surprised” when the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) chose not to prosecute her case.
She was “absolutely devasted” and “started to regret” her decision to report the incident. The answer came “without a meaningful explanation” after a few years of “waiting, of uncertainty and carrying the weight”, she said. Her appeal of the DPP’s decision was rejected.
“I never got my day in court. My voice was silenced before it was ever heard. We need to become comfortable speaking about the uncomfortable because silence protects perpetrators, not survivors,” she said.
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On Thursday she joined Hazel Behan, who was violently raped in her apartment in the Algarve in 2004, and Natasha O’Brien, who was physically assaulted on a Limerick street by then-soldier Cathal Crotty in 2022, in raising awareness of marches taking place next Tuesday, the international day for the elimination of violence against women.
People Before Profit-Solidarity TD Ruth Coppinger, who organised a press conference highlighting the actions, asked people to join survivors next Tuesday in Dublin, Cork and Limerick and to wear red lipstick or clothes as an “act of defiance against victim-blaming”.
“On this global day of feminist action, we march for justice for survivors on this island and globally,” she said.
Ms Behan said justice systems offer “misogyny, re-traumatisation and blame”.
Christian Brückner (48), who was already serving a sentence for rape, was in October of last year acquitted of sexual assault charges, including the rape of Ms Behan. German prosecutors have appealed the verdict.
Ms Behan said survivors of sexual assault “have to prove that they didn’t give consent when really it should be the other person proving that they did”.
“The perpetrator is all of a sudden entitled to this huge amount of rights and I’m all for a fair trial. But at what expense? Who is this fair trial for? Because it certainly isn’t for the victim in the majority of sexual violence cases.
“Survivors of gender violence carry more than just the weight of what happened to them. They carry the silence they were forced into, the shame that was never theirs to hold, and the pain of systems that too often failed them,” she said, calling on people to join the march for a “fairer, more just system that uplifts, empowers and believes survivors”.
Despite being left with “bruises and broken” bones, Ms O’Brien said she feels “lucky”.
“I am so lucky that what happened to me happened on a busy public street with multiple witnesses and working CCTV and a squad car around the corner. I am lucky that I had bruises and broken bones to show the proof of what was perpetrated against me. I’m lucky that I got into court,” she said.
The soldier who attacked her was initially given a wholly suspended sentence, but he was later handed two years in prison after the DPP appealed the sentence as unduly lenient.
“Again, I am lucky that I had victims and survivors of gender-based violence and the larger public of Ireland come out and stand by me and we managed to overturn that sentence,” she said.
Protests next Tuesday will take place at 5.30pm at City Hall in Dublin, at 6pm at Grand Parade in Cork and at 6pm at Bedford Row in Limerick.
