Sexual assault increase in city

The increase in reports of sexual assaults has been attributed to the dedicated unit set up in 2017 to deal with serious crime at Anglesea Street Garda Station.

There’s been more than 100 reports of sexual assaults so far this year in Cork city, new figures for the region revealed this week.

Gardaí recorded 102 reports from January to September this year compared with 83 for the same time period in 2018, a 23 per cent increase.

The figures were released at a Cork City Joint Policing Committee meeting in City Hall.

The Protective Services Unit (PSU) was established two years ago to deal with crimes of a sensitive nature like these.

Speaking to the Cork Independent about the figures, Superintendent Colm O’Sullivan said that when the new unit came to fruition, the gardaí encouraged, and continue to encourage, people to come forward and report sexual assault and rape.

He said that because of the encouragement, more people have come forward to report incidents.

“It would follow on then that there would be an increase in reporting when we have these procedures in place to assist people in coming forward and reporting incidents to us,” said Superintendent O’Sullivan.

Meanwhile, reports of rape are down 24 per cent from 38 to 29.