Troubles sex crime victims deserve to have their stories told – Jess Phillips

Jess Phillips has said people who suffered sexual violence during the Troubles “absolutely deserve to have that story told and writ large”.

The minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls appeared before the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee on Wednesday.

During the session, she was asked by South Antrim MP Robin Swann if the use of coercive control, sexual control and rape “as a weapon” during the Troubles should be included in the Northern Ireland Troubles Bill.

Ms Phillips said: “Of course, I think that anyone who suffered sexual violence because of conflict that should be taken into account.”

But she said such cases are not simple or linear and “what I never want to set up, and have seen it happen, are systems that retraumatise people for no end”.

Addressing the committee, she said violence against women and girls, particularly in Northern Ireland, is a “national emergency” and an “epidemic”.

She said the femicide rates in Northern Ireland are higher than “not just other parts of the United Kingdom but quite a lot of the world”.

Ms Phillips said the influence of paramilitarism on women in Northern Ireland had been raised with her “on a number of occasions”.

She said: “When women are part of a cause, it’s very, very easy for the cause to matter more than anything else, and you see that across various different manifestations.”

The Birmingham Yardley MP said she had dealt with a lot of forced marriages and honour-based violence cases in her constituency and highlighted the crossover between “community-related” crimes and “alleged cultural practices” in the two areas.

She said when she spoke to women in Northern Ireland: “I could have been talking to some of the women I’ve worked with who had been forced married, or victims of honour crime.”

She said: “Honour-based abuse does definitely translate over to the situation in Northern Ireland, undoubtedly, because the issue about not speaking up because of political allegiances is about honour.

“There’s so many echoes of the same sort of levers that are used over women.”

Discussing Government strategies to tackle violence against women in different parts of the UK, Ms Phillips gave credit to the Northern Ireland Executive for building a policy that is “incredibly victim-centric”.

Speaking about the work of the PSNI, she said she is “very impressed” with some of the “really specific, targeted operations that they were doing around sexual offending online”.

She said she had met PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher a number of times and thinks he is “a decent man who cares about the right things”.

DUP leader Gavin Robinson raised the need for positive male role models and highlighted the promotion of the White Ribbon campaign by Larne Football Club.

He compared them to the “TikToky-type idiot” who appeared in the recent documentary Louis Theroux: Inside The Manosphere, and said the men who featured in the TV programme “were all balloons”.

Ms Phillips said positive role models are “very, very important and a huge part of the Government’s strategy, especially when you’re talking about post-16”, and that sport is a “really, really, really important element”.

After hearing some of the strategies being put in place by Ulster Rugby, like extra changing rooms, to encourage girls to take part in the sport, the minister said she would “try and visit them”.

She joked she would “start supporting” rugby teams in Northern Ireland as she has “no allegiance elsewhere in this sporting game”.