The chief govt officer of the Crime Victims Helpline, Michelle Puckhaber, has spoken of the persevering with rise in circumstances of ‘sextortion’.
“It is one thing that we did not hear about three years in the past, it wasn’t even in our stats. And now it is possibly the third or fourth commonest cause persons are ringing the Crime Victims Helpline,” she advised RTÉ radio’s Morning Eire.
“It is even been such a rise that it is modified our demographics of who’s ringing us, as a result of sextortion actually impacts younger males for probably the most half. And we have seen an enormous enhance within the variety of younger males who’re contacting us for data and help.”
Ms Puckhaber stated that the individuals contacting the helpline had been experiencing “excessive panic, embarrassment, worry, and simply full overwhelm with what might occur”.
The recommendation from Crime Victims Helpline and the gardaí was not to answer any demand for fee as this might result in additional calls for. It’s a crime to threaten to share intimate images, she stated.
“Most people who find themselves victims of crime have by no means encountered the prison justice system earlier than. It is all new to them. So they do not actually know what to anticipate or what is going on to occur. So we’ll information individuals by what they’ll count on. We inform individuals about their rights as victims of crime. We allow them to find out about compensation.
“After which the third, type of strand of issues that we do is we signpost to different sufferer help providers. So Eire has a number of actually wonderful sufferer help providers, throughout the nation. So we assist individuals discover these, whether or not it is a specialty service for home violence or sexual assault. Or it is only a native service when it comes to courtroom accompaniment.”
