A woman who was a victim of sexual assault has described as "soul destroying" having to hand over her counselling records to a defence team.
Minister for Justice Jim O'Callaghan yesterday signalled that he intends to take legislative action to further restrict the disclosure of counselling records from complainants during sexual assault trials.
Solicitor Sarah Grace was the victim of a sexual assault five years ago.
About six months into attending her weekly therapy sessions in the wake of the attack, Ms Grace learned through her family liaison officer that her notes could be taken by the defence and used as evidence against her in the trial.
Speaking to Morning Ireland, Ms Grace described having to hand over her counselling records to the defence team as "absolutely soul destroying".
She said: "I was advised that although technically, I could refuse [to share the therapy notes], all that would do was delay the trial by about a year, and that in fact the judge then would have to decide whether the counselling records should be seized or not and in all likelihood they would be.
"So really my choices were say yes now and spare yourself the delay or delay and they will be seized regardless."
Ms Grace thought about stopping her counselling sessions altogether.
"I was so far in and I had poured so much of myself out," Ms Grace explained, "but certainly, from that point on I was very conscious that anything I was saying, in therapy could be used against me and it did, in a way, make the counselling way less effective."
In the end, Ms Grace's notes were not used by the defence team in the trial, but they were read by the defence team.
Ms Grace has now called on the practise of disclosing counselling records to end.
"It’s such an infringement of victim's personal rights to privacy and just to human decency," she said.
Handing over records 'comes as a shock' to victims
Meanwhile, a barrister has said many people have been left shocked to discover that their conselling notes could be used in sexual assault cases, a barrister has said.
Gemma McLoughlin-Burke, who co-authored a report for the Department of Justice on the processing of sexual offences, said some people have been incorrectly informed that their case may not progress if they do not sign a waiver allowing their notes to be used.
She said that from the research conducted there is a "huge lack of knowledge of individuals when they're engaging in counselling, if that's something that could happen. So, it certainly does come as a shock to many who are engaged in in their counselling process".
She explained the background to accused people being allowed access to the notes as evidence in any prosecution.
She told RTÉ's Morning Ireland: "Historically it would have been and still presently is the case that the rights of the accused entitled them to anything that can assist them in their defence.
"And so there are cases and they are, I would say the exception and certainly came up in our research, the exception rather than the rule where there may be matters in counselling records that are of assistance.
"But in the majority of cases, in fact, there's not really anything of relevance. What people are looking for are inconsistent statements, or perhaps previous false accuse. That's generally where this is where it all came from. This is why they started being disclosed in the first place.
But certainly there's no compulsion on any complainant to disclose their records. They're entitled to refuse to waive that disclosure and to have a hearing before before a court."
