Prison rapes in Ireland are uncommon, the governor of Mountjoy Prison in Dublin, Mr John Lonergan, said yesterday.
He was commenting after a High Court hearing on Wednesday, at which a barrister representing a 19-year-old male prisoner in Mountjoy said the man had been raped at knife point by two inmates on August 2nd.
Mr Lonergan said there had been, in total, four or five serious allegations of rape in Dublin jails in the last three years, and in two cases the allegations had proved to be correct.
"In the context of 11,000 or 12,000 people going through the prison system in Ireland every year, the number of allegations made by prisoners that they were interfered with sexually is very, very small," Mr Lonergan said.
"In other places such as Brazil or Peru, rape seems to be a regular feature of prison life." Mr Denis Griffin of the Irish Prisons Service said allegations of rape by prisoners in Ireland were rare, but had been increasing.
In the US various studies have shown that between 9 and 22 per cent of male prisoners get raped, according to Stop Prisoner Rape, a US voluntary organisation set up to reduce the rate of prison rape.
Guaranteeing that prisoners were 100 per cent safe at all times was very difficult, Mr Lonergan said. "You just can't do it, unless you lock them up for 24 hours a day and feed them in their cells."
Mr Lonergan and Mr Griffin said prison rape complaints were taken very seriously. In such cases the Garda i was called immediately and the prisoner was examined by a doctor, brought to the Rape Crisis Centre and given the opportunity to see a psychiatrist or psychologist. Ongoing counselling was available for prisoners where the RCC deemed it appropriate.
Male rape in prison was particularly traumatic, Ms Olive Braiden, director of the Rape Crisis Centre, said, and sympathy was often tinged with abhorrence for their crimes. "People will say, what are they in prison for? Victim blame is one of the most insidious and invidious things," Ms Braiden said.
Rape also highlighted prisoners' vulnerability, at a time when they might be feeling low. Compounding the trauma was the fact that men found it harder than women to report rape. "Men find it harder to look for help because they feel that a rape puts their sexuality in question. They might ask: why did it happen to me?"
About 10 per cent of Rape Crisis Centre clients were now male, according to Ms Braiden.
