A record number of people – totalling 1,072 attendances – were treated in the six sexual assault treatment units in the country last year, marking a 25% increase in attendance nationally.
In Dublin the surge in numbers was even more marked, with the number of sexual assault victims presenting at the city’s clinic jumping by 38% in 2022.
The annual report published by the HSE captured information from sexual assault treatment units (SATUs) Dublin, Cork, Waterford, Mullingar, Galway and Letterkenny.
The increase nationally for 2022 compared to 2019, the year before the Covid lockdowns, was 14% – and the numbers reflect a continuing trend in rising numbers of sexual assaults in the country.
Prof Maeve Eogan, the National Clinical Lead for the units with the HSE, noted that the number of people attending after sexual assaults had more than doubled since 2009 – the first year metrics were recorded.
“2022 was our busiest year on record and these numbers challenged our ability to see patients within 3 hours primarily due to infrastructural limitations and also due to temporary staffing issues for the first half of 2022,” she wrote.
The figures showed that the number of sexual assaults perpetrated by multiple assailants had increased to 7% of the total assaults – up from 5% of the total in 2021.
“Incidents where the perpetrator was described as a stranger were recorded at 26%, which is an increase of 7% from the previous year,” the report found.
“In 2022 60% of assailants were known to the person – either a family member, current of former intimate partner, friend or acquaintance. This a reduction of 7% compared with 2021 where 67% of assailants were known to the person.”
However, cases involving sexual assault by a stranger, an acquaintance of less than 24 hours, or an acquaintance of more than 24 hours, amounted to some 59% of all those presenting.
Sexual assaults by a friend amounted to 13% of cases, while former or current intimate partner made up 11% of cases at the SATUs.
3% of cases involved a family member, according to the report.
There was also a growing number of incidents where physical restraints were used, amounting to 34% of incidents recorded by SATUs last year compared to 25% in 2021.
7.5% of cases involved the use of weapons, and a third of all sexual assaults resulted in some form of injury.
More than 1 in 5 (21%) of those attending the sexual assault units said that drugs and/or alcohol were used to facilitate a sexual assault on them.
Almost half of all people attending a SATU last year reported consuming more than six standard drinks at the time of the incident, while 13% had taken recreational drugs.
School or third-level students accounted for 38% of all cases in 2022.
The vast majority of people attending SATUs last year were females (91%) – with a further 8% being male patients, and 1% identifying as another gender or none.
