Caoimhe Haughey

I just, I can still feel it.

I can still remember it.

It felt, whatever about the punch to the head, it felt such a violation.

I felt stripped.

I felt dirty.

I felt contaminated.

I was just standing on the street on my own.

It was a dark March evening and I just kind of shrugged my shoulders and said, what do I do now?

And into the Garda station.

I actually had to wait quite a while to make the report.

I have to be quite honest with you that the initial member of the Garda who met with me wasn't very sympathetic.

That's the truth.

So going to what Natasha is saying, it is a very complex situation.

There's the causes, the symptoms.

You know, that's how we deal with it.

I absolutely agree with Natasha about counselling notes in relation to victims of any type of assault.

But I would say, particularly because I work in Dublin 8, that the absence of policing on our streets from one end of the year to the other is a very serious issue for me because I feel if there is a presence, there is a sense of deterrence.

And there's also a sense among those of us walking around minding our own business, you look up and you see, oh, there's three Garda on the corner there.

That's good.