A woman who was raped in Galway in July 2019 has said that she"lost five years" of her life waiting for the case to come to trial.
She said that she did not want to confront what happened, but when the verdict came, she said she could finally say"I was raped". She lost sleep or had nightmares, she said, as a number of different trial dates drew closer, but they would be pushed back. "For victims of sexual violence, control is a massive thing, and that control being taken away from you, it’s not a nice place to be," Ms Raleigh said."I would spend most of my days just staring into space, just couldn't really function."
"It got to a stage where I’d be watching everyone else and I’d be so anxious that something was going to happen to somebody else. I just couldn’t relax. We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
"I would encourage anybody who needs their services to contact them, they are excellent," she said, adding that she has launched a fundraiser for the organisation.