Very brave and courageous.
These are words often used to describe women who pursue sexual assault cases in the courts, who give evidence when allegations are denied, who face cross-examination and questioning of their motives, their recollections and the extent of the damage caused to them.
Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan rightly says being 'brave and courageous' should not be necessary in these instances, as all claims of sexual violence should be followed up as a matter of course, without the need, one presumes, for special reserves of bravery.
But as things stand, a survivor of a sex attack needs to have colossal reserves of stamina, resilience and strength to make a complaint about sexual assault and stick with it all the way through the justice system.
Leona O'Callaghan is one such woman. Four years after she first reported that she had been raped as a child, her attacker was sentenced in the Central Criminal Court this week. Leona spent the day in the court and then came into our studio to tell the Minster for Justice Charlie Flanagan about her experience of seeking justice for an appalling crime that robbed her of her innocence - and impacted her adult life and relationships from that day on.
Here you have a strong and intelligent woman who, while she has suffered in innumerable ways because of Patrick O'Dea's depraved actions, has also had the wherewithal to seek help and get counselling to deal with the fallout. With that professional help, Leona realises now that none of what happened to her was her fault. She was a 12-year-old child, unable in law to give consent, who was preyed on by an adult man who groomed and isolated her for his own gratification.
But our justice system threatened to tear down all of that work that Leona has done for herself and to undermine her hard-won self-belief. When it was mentioned in court in mitigation that some of the interactions between her and O'Dea were 'consensual', Leona began to berate herself for not fighting back more. She began to doubt the child that she was back then for not beating back this adult man who was raping her.
She says that she now finds it harder to forgive herself for the times when she was assaulted and didn't fight back, despite knowing that it was safer for her not to put up a fight when the attacks were taking place.
"When it is said in court, with all of the pomp and ceremony, gowns and protocol, that you may have played a role in this - how can that not affect you?"
When it was said it court that O'Dea 'only held her down once', the self-loathing threatened to overcome her again.
Here is an adult woman, blaming her childhood self for allowing herself to be raped.
Leona knows that it was not her fault, but when it is said in court, with all of the pomp and ceremony, gowns and protocol, that you may have played a role in this - and the perpetrator should be given a lesser sentence because of that - how can that not affect you? How strong and brave and courageous do you need to be to withstand those sorts of claims and to hold your nerve?
Everyone is entitled to a defence and to legal representation and so this is not an easy one to solve. But as Leona says, when a perpetrator pleads guilty, how can it be possible to then use words like 'consensual' in the ensuing sentencing hearing?
Women like Leona can take heart from the fact that the Minister for Justice is prepared to listen to survivors - we can hope that action will follow. What is needed now is a sign from the legal profession that it is listening too. Perhaps one day, making a complaint of sexual violence will not require bravery and courage and the stamina to withstand years of waiting for the system to deal with cases. Nor should survivors have to face the likelihood that they will be questioned and, in Leona's case, the bona fides of a 12-year-old child called into question.
Patrick O'Dea from Pike Avenue, Limerick, was sentenced to 18 years for his abuse of Leona O'Callaghan. Eighteen months of that sentence was suspended and it will be served concurrent to a 15-year sentence he is serving for a similar offences on another girl.
Leona waived her anonymity so that O'Dea could be named.
You can watch Leona's remarkable interview on Claire Byrne Live here:
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