Nearly 19,500 cases of domestic abuse reported to gardai so far this year
Nearly 19,500 domestic abuse incidents have been reported to gardai so far this year, shocking new figures have revealed.
Of these, one-third of the incidents were reported in Dublin.
However, Justice Minister Jim O'Callaghan also warned that this is not the full picture of domestic and gender-based violence incidents and gardai will provide more comprehensive data soon.
Labour's Marie Sherlock said gardai must ensure there are enough supports in place to support people who have been brave enough to contact them in the first instance.
She asked Justice Minister Jim O'Callaghan to confirm the number of reported domestic and sexual-based violence incidents so far this year in each garda district.
The data provided included cases that had been logged on the Garda Pulse system as Breach of a Barring Order and Breach of an Emergency Barring Order'.
It also included any incident type that was recorded as having a 'domestic abuse' motive.
Between the start of the year and May 27, 19,417 cases were reported. Of those, 6,267 incidents were reported in the six Dublin Garda districts (33%).
The largest number of reports was in the Northern district of the Dublin Metropolitan Region, where 1,552 people reported domestic abuse.
And 1,329 incidents were reported in the Louth/Cavan/Monaghan area, 1,283 in Wexford/Wicklow, and 1,196 in Kildare/Carlow.
The lowest number of reports was in Sligo/Leitrim, where there were still 335 reports.
Minister O'Callaghan warned Ms Sherlock this was not the 'full breadth of incidents that could be regarded as domestic and sexual based violence'.
He said: 'An Garda Siochana and my Department are continuing to work hard to strengthen trust and confidence in the system, so that victims will feel confident to report what has happened to them and get justice.
'The nationwide rollout of Divisional Protective Service Units has ensured that when victims of crimes such as domestic abuse and sexual violence present to gardai, they are met with a consistently high standard of specialist assistance.
'This is not reflective of the full breadth of incidents that could be regarded as domestic and sexual based violence.'
Ms Sherlock told the Irish Sunday Mirror that gardai must ensure there is enough support in place for victims and survivors of domestic abuse.
She said: 'When you look at certain parts of Dublin, there's certainly a frightening level being reported.
'It requires a huge amount of very sensitive and delicate policing because you're dealing with a complicated set of factors.'
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Irish Daily Mirror
5 hours ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
Nearly 19,500 cases of domestic abuse reported to gardai so far this year
Nearly 19,500 domestic abuse incidents have been reported to gardai so far this year, shocking new figures have revealed. Of these, one-third of the incidents were reported in Dublin. However, Justice Minister Jim O'Callaghan also warned that this is not the full picture of domestic and gender-based violence incidents and gardai will provide more comprehensive data soon. Labour's Marie Sherlock said gardai must ensure there are enough supports in place to support people who have been brave enough to contact them in the first instance. She asked Justice Minister Jim O'Callaghan to confirm the number of reported domestic and sexual-based violence incidents so far this year in each garda district. The data provided included cases that had been logged on the Garda Pulse system as Breach of a Barring Order and Breach of an Emergency Barring Order'. It also included any incident type that was recorded as having a 'domestic abuse' motive. Between the start of the year and May 27, 19,417 cases were reported. Of those, 6,267 incidents were reported in the six Dublin Garda districts (33%). The largest number of reports was in the Northern district of the Dublin Metropolitan Region, where 1,552 people reported domestic abuse. And 1,329 incidents were reported in the Louth/Cavan/Monaghan area, 1,283 in Wexford/Wicklow, and 1,196 in Kildare/Carlow. The lowest number of reports was in Sligo/Leitrim, where there were still 335 reports. Minister O'Callaghan warned Ms Sherlock this was not the 'full breadth of incidents that could be regarded as domestic and sexual based violence'. He said: 'An Garda Siochana and my Department are continuing to work hard to strengthen trust and confidence in the system, so that victims will feel confident to report what has happened to them and get justice. 'The nationwide rollout of Divisional Protective Service Units has ensured that when victims of crimes such as domestic abuse and sexual violence present to gardai, they are met with a consistently high standard of specialist assistance. 'This is not reflective of the full breadth of incidents that could be regarded as domestic and sexual based violence.' Ms Sherlock told the Irish Sunday Mirror that gardai must ensure there is enough support in place for victims and survivors of domestic abuse. She said: 'When you look at certain parts of Dublin, there's certainly a frightening level being reported. 'It requires a huge amount of very sensitive and delicate policing because you're dealing with a complicated set of factors.'
Extra.ie
a day ago
- Extra.ie
Gardai to review Tina Satchwell and Michael Gaine investigations
The investigations into the murders of Tina Satchwell and Michael Gaine, whose bodies were not found during initial searches after their disappearance, will be reviewed. Garda Commissioner Drew Harris said that 'in hindsight' it may have been 'very obvious' where Mrs Satchwell's remains were secretly buried. Mr Harris said a report will be compiled and given to Minister for Justice Jim O'Callaghan on Ms Satchwell's disappearance, while the case of Mr Gaine is undergoing a peer review. Tina Satchwell. Earlier this week, Richard Satchwell was given a life sentence for the murder of his wife Tina at their home in Co Cork. The British truck driver, 58, had denied murdering his wife between March 19 and 20, 2017. The jury at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin reached the unanimous verdict last Friday after nine hours and 28 minutes of deliberations. Pic: An Garda Síochána Missing Persons Ms Satchwell's skeletal remains were found buried under the stairs of the couple's home in Youghal, Co. Cork, in October 2023, more than six years after her husband reported her missing. The house had been searched in 2017 but nothing was found. In a separate case, the remains of Mr Gaine, a farmer from Co. Kerry, were discovered in a slurry tank on his farmland in May, two months after he was reported missing by his wife. The farmyard had been previously searched as part of the investigation. Tina Satchwell. Speaking about the investigation of Ms Satchwell's disappearance, Mr Harris said the 2017 search did 'harvest' some 'huge information', which was 'crucial' in the re-examination of the case. Speaking at the Garda College in Templemore, Co. Tipperary, he said: 'The initial investigation was hamstrung because of the lack of information in comparison to the later re-examination of this matter. 'There's far more information to hand, which gave us real grounds then for actual suspicion and then inquiries that we could lead. Michael (Mike) Gaine. Pic: '[In] hindsight, some of these things can seem very obvious, but in the moment, what was known, what was being said in terms of sighting, what was being said in terms of the victim by her husband, and one has to recognise the victimology that was being applied here. 'The coercive control that obviously she was subject to for many years, her isolation in that particular community, that meant that there was very few other people that we could speak to [about] what Tina Satchwell's life was like. 'Yes, the house was searched in 2017. Forensic scientists also accompanied that search. It was subject to thorough examination and looked for blood splatter. None was found.' He said the initial investigation will be subject to a review. 'There are definitely lessons that we wish to learn from all of these homicides, where it's missing persons and then converts some time later to a homicide investigation.' He added: 'We've already reviewed all our missing person reports nationally. We found no other suspected homicide cases. 'Then following the Michael Gaine investigation, we're subjecting that to peer review, as I do think there's learning for us around those who would commit crime and then attempt to dispose of the body, and often are successful in disposing of the body,' he added.
Irish Times
a day ago
- Irish Times
The story of Sunny Jacobs was never as straightforward as the media suggested
In every photo taken of her, Sonia 'Sunny' Jacobs appears eager to live up to a childhood nickname that otherwise might have seemed perversely ill-suited to the arc of her life. Yes, I've had my troubles, the broad smile she wears in every photograph projects, but look at me now. I'm at peace. And all the evidence suggests that she had indeed found solace in Connemara, until her body – and that of her 31-year-old carer Kevin Kelly – was pulled from an inferno in her home last weekend. The circumstances of her life made those of her death all the more tragic. Jacobs spent 16 years in prison for a crime she didn't commit, five on death row. Her co-accused, Jesse Tafero, died in a horrific botched execution. [ The life and tragic death of Sunny Jacobs: how a US death row survivor ended up in Connemara Opens in new window ] What happened on the morning in 1976 that determined the course of her life was this. Or what happened was something like this – maybe. Nearly 50 years on, the details are still murky, obscured by the heat of the moment, conflicts of motive and narrative, confusing forensic evidence, the unreliable nature of human recall and the passage of time. READ MORE Sunny Jacobs, then 28, was sleeping in the back of a car parked up at a rest stop in Florida, a bag containing pink pyjamas at her feet and two small children at her side: Eric was nine; Tina just 10 months. In the front were two men: Tafero, her boyfriend and father of her baby, and another man, Walter Rhodes. A state trooper – accompanied by a friend, a Canadian police officer – came to do a routine check. One spotted a gun in the car – there were several, it would later emerge. Gunfire broke out – it was never clear how it started – and both police officers were killed. Rhodes was the only one who tested positive for gunpowder residue. He agreed to testify against Jacobs and Tafero in return for a life sentence. Tafero and Jacobs were sentenced to death by 'Maximum Dan' Futch, a judge who kept a replica electric chair on his desk. The same US news outlets that had gorged on Jacobs when she was on trial just as enthusiastically redeemed her after she was freed on a plea deal in 1992. Originally she had been portrayed as the Bonnie to Tafero's Clyde. Now she became a vegetarian hippie who simply found herself in the wrong place at the wrong time. The tragedy was compounded by the fact that her parents died in a plane crash while she was still in prison. Death in Connemara: who was Sunny Jacobs? Listen | 18:42 She went on to campaign against the death penalty and to marry another former death row inmate, Peter Pringle. They moved to Connemara where they sometimes had exonerated inmates come to stay. There have been documentaries, a stage play, books, interviews, even a Vows column in The New York Times. As journalist turned private investigator Ellen McGarrahan discovered, when she set out to write a book on it , there is no absolute truth about any of the events of February 1976, least of all the question of who Jacobs was. She had many advantages in life – loving parents, material comforts – but a series of bad choices saw her end up on the run with her drug-dealing boyfriend in a car packed with drugs, weapons and two children. Her life is a reminder that we should be wary when presented with stories of women – and particularly women accused of high-profile crimes – who are rendered in black and white, all good or all bad. Jacobs wasn't Bonnie – but neither was she just a hapless hippie who stumbled into a bad situation. McGarrahan suggests the gunfire started with a taser shot from the back seat, where Jacobs and the children were huddled. In the search for a definitive set of facts, broader truths were overlooked. One of those was perhaps best expressed by Jacobs herself. The only facts that actually matter are that two people died and 'the system was misused and as a result countless people were victimised. And someone may have been put to death who was innocent, or at least was entitled to a new trial.' If there are lessons to be gleaned from the life and awful death of Jacobs, one is about the unspeakable cruelty of that system. McGarrahan became haunted by the story after she witnessed Tafero's execution in May 1990. The description in her book is so distressing that I decided not to include it here. But then I read that US president Donald Trump intends to forcefully pursue new death sentences, particularly against migrants. And so here is what McGarrahan saw. 'His scalp caught fire. Flames blazed from his head, arcing birch orange with tails of dark smoke. A gigantic buzzing sound filled the chamber ... In the chair, Jesse Tafero clenched his fists as he slammed upwards and back. He is breathing, I wrote on my yellow notepad. ... Breath. His chest heaving. The – the buzzing again. Flames. Smoke. His head nods. His head is nodding. He is breathing ... It took seven minutes and three jolts before he was finally declared dead.' Jacobs never forgot that this could have been her fate; the fact that the flames came for her in the end is the cruellest conceivable irony. In the final analysis, her story is a reminder about how ready we are to render women as either the evil witch or Snow White, with no room for the grey areas in between. It is about how you don't have to be blameless to deserve a chance of a happy ending. And it is about redemption. ' Life turned out beautifully ,' Pringle told The Guardian in 2013. While they could be forgiven for glossing over some of the details of their lives, that – for a period at least – was the unvarnished truth.
