The justice system in the Republic has been criticised in the Northern Ireland Assembly for its failure to resolve the Sarah Bland incest case. A motion proposed by Mr Ian Paisley jnr (DUP) was passed unanimously yesterday.
The 24-year-old woman and her mother, Patricia, claim she was subjected to ritual abuse during the early 1980s. No charges were brought.
"For as long as this gross injustice of the Bland case remains unresolved, anything the Irish authorities say about rights, equality, justice, honour or truth must be treated with contempt," Mr Paisley said. He said it was the only recorded case he could find showing the child suffering rape after being placed in the care of the abuser.
"This child was subject to incest, torture, drugging and rape by a number of men in a stately home which by Christmas of 1980 had run down to filth and chaos," added Mr Paisley.
Ms Monica McWilliams (Women's Coalition) said it was "not peculiar to the Irish justice system to have huge inadequacies when victims come forward and try to get successful prosecutions either in relation to ritual abuse or sexual abuse or even domestic violence".
Fewer than half of all cases investigated were taken up by the DPP in Britain, the North or the Republic.
She said there was something "seriously wrong" in the British judicial system when, despite an increase in the reporting of crime, there was a lower conviction rate now than in the 1980s.