Member's statement: Violence Against Women and Girls

Member's statement by Mrs Linda Dillon on 12 January 2026.

MLA

Mrs Linda Dillon

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

12 January 2026

Type

Member's statement

Business

Members' Statements

Heading

Violence Against Women and Girls

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5311229

Read the official Assembly record

Text

My statement is directly related to the previous one. It is not on AI, but it is related. I will speak today about violence against women and girls and the easy narrative regarding that epidemic that the perpetrators are strangers, do not look or sound like us, are not our friends and family, do not play on our local sports teams and are not respected people in our community. When will people wise up? Those men are your friends, your family and your teammates; they do sound and look like you; and being respected in the community is exactly how they get away with violence against women and girls. They use their positions of trust in the community, and they use their positions of power. If we want to combat the low reporting rates of domestic and sexual abuse, we need to change the culture in our society whereby the victim's credibility is often scrutinised more than that of the alleged perpetrator. That does not happen with any other crime. No other victims have their integrity and honesty scrutinised as though they have done something wrong by daring to report a crime. We have seen that all before when it comes to historical abuse in institutions and by religious orders and people in positions of power. They undermined the victims so that they would not be considered to be credible witnesses, even if they had had the courage to complain or report an incident at the time. Those victims have paid a high price, and current-day victims of domestic and sexual abuse will carry that same trauma throughout their lifetime. Although we have seen some changes in the courts through the Gillen review and recommendations and there has been legislative change in the area of domestic and sexual abuse, we need to see a genuine culture shift. That starts in the Chamber. There can be no tolerance of violence against women and girls. That needs to be real and should be reflected in everything that we say and do as elected representatives. Platitudes and lip service are not good enough. We must challenge ourselves to be part of the change that will make a real difference for victims. Right now, it is easier not to report domestic and sexual violence, because the additional trauma is overwhelming for many victims. What does that say about us as a society? The easy narrative is failing women and girls every day, and we need to stop being part of it.

417 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 14:13 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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