Sex abuse victims could suffer serious mental problems and end up suicidal if the North's Rape Crisis Centre closes following a British government decision to stop its funding, women who have survived sexual violence are warning.
They have branded the Department of Health's decision to withdraw the £66,000 annual funding, because the centre allegedly hasn't met government accounting requirements, as "an insult to all who have suffered sexual violence in the North".
The centre is consulting its lawyers. Rape victim, Julie Anne Boyle, said: "It feels like we are being abused all over again. This decision belongs in the dark ages. This centre has literally saved women's lives. Without it, many of us wouldn't have had a future.
"The funding was already pitiful compared to the £9 million a year the Assembly costs. The British government was spending 8p a year, for every woman in Northern Ireland, on the Rape Crisis Centre, and £10.34 a year, per woman in Northern Ireland, on an Assembly which isn't even meeting properly. Those are disgraceful priorities."
Boyle was raped by her father, to whom she became pregnant and suffered a miscarriage. She was also one of 21 girls abused by 'Birdman Jack', a north Belfast pensioner who lured children into his home to see his budgerigars, and then indecently assaulted them. He was convicted of 61 offences in 1996 but served only two years imprisonment.
Boyle says: "I turned against my body and became anorexic and bulimic. Only counselling at the Rape Crisis Centre saved me and helped me take control of my life.
"If this funding isn't reinstated, there are women out there who wont be as lucky as me and will end up in mental institutions, or even committing suicide, because they can't cope."
Rape victims are threatening to picket Stormont and Downing Street if the funding decision isn't reversed. Roisin Fry from Belfast, who was abused by a Catholic priest as a child in the 1970s, said: "Without the Rape Crisis Centre, I would have killed myself. It has been my lifeline. Only in my adult years have I been able to deal with what happened me.
"Rape Crisis Centre staff have accompanied me to meet the Bishop of Down and Connor and members of the hierarchy in Dublin. If this centre closes, there will be nobody speaking out strongly for women suffering sexual violence here."
Last year, the centre helped 3,600 women. In its letter withdrawing funding, the Department of Health gave the Rape Crisis Centre 14 days to respond to claims it hadn't kept proper financial records.
Rape Crisis Centre director, Eileen Calder, said: "There are no suggestions of fraud or wrong-doing, they are just nit-picking. We're prepared to open our books to any independent accountants.
"Out of £66,000, we pay two staff salaries, electricity, phone bills, and volunteers' expenses." Calder said she suspected the centre was being "punished" by government for its outspoken criticism on rape sentencing and the Probation Board's treatment of sex offenders.
She appealed to the Irish government for support: "Rape Crisis Centres in the Republic aren't well-off but they are far better funded that us. Northern rape victims shouldn't be left as second-class citizens." The SDLP and the DUP have both pledged support for the centre.
