One in three assault complaints being dropped by victims

The number of serious assaults decreased significantly in the county in the third quarter of this year, but the Chief Superintendent for the Cavan Monaghan Garda Division has expressed concern that at least one in three assault complaints are being dropped by alleged victims. The worrying trend continues with only a quarter of reported domestic violence incidents resulting in a charges being brought, for a variety of reasons.

Chief Supt John O’Reilly presented the latest crime statistics for the two Cavan districts at the December meeting of the Joint Policing Committee (JPC).
He revealed there were nine cases of assaults causing harm in the Bailieboro District during the third quarter of 2019, compared to 15 during the same period last year – down 40%. The same level of such offences were recorded in the Cavan District for the period – at 24 incidents.
For more minor assaults, the number of incidents in Cavan was down to 49 from 58 (-16%); while in Bailieboro there were 21 minor assaults in the third quarter, compared to 23 last year.
Chief Supt O’Reilly, however, remarked on the number of complaints regarding alleged assaults that are being dropped by complainants.
“What is of most relevance to this committee here is that on average, we are having between 30-33% complaints regarding assaults not being advanced. The complainants make the complaint in the first instance to a guard, then fail or refuse to pursue it,” he said, expressing frustration that there is “nothing we can do about it”.
The chief super’s comments came during the ‘International 16 Days of Action Against Violence Against Women’ campaign. 
He revealed at Friday’s meeting in the courthouse that there had been a jump in reports of domestic violence in the Cavan District. There had risen to 60, up from 37 (+62%) in the third quarter of this year; while the Bailieboro District recorded a decrease - 27 reports in Q3, 2019 compared to 33 for the same period last year (-18%).
Chief Supt O’Reilly stressed that these figures relate to the number of incidents that gardaí attended.
For example, of the 37 incidents gardaí attended in the third quarter of 2018 in Cavan, only nine resulted in a criminal charge.
That translates to a ratio of less than one in four.

 Headline figures

There was only one robbery in the Cavan District during the third quarter of this year and there is an individual before the courts in respect of that.
Theft from vehicles in the Bailieboro District is down from 18 last year to just four in the third quarter (-350%); while in Cavan there has been an increase from 11 to 14 such incidents (+27%).
Theft from shops in the Bailieboro District is up to 21 from 14 (+50%); while in Cavan there were 48 incidents recorded in Q3, 2019, just one less than the previous year.
There were 111 public order offences in the Cavan District, compared to 103 last year.
Meanwhile, there was a big jump in this category of offence for the Bailieboro District in the third quarter of 2019 - up to 63, from 44 last year (+43%).