Over 80 percent of sexual assaults in Ireland reported last year were committed against women.

2,266 reports of sexual offences involving rape or sexual assault to Gardaí in 2018 were made by women, with one quarter of them regarding an incident that occurred at least 10 years earlier. New statistics released by the CSO show that over one third of sexual assaults reported last year had happened at least one year prior. 1,017 victims reported crimes that had happened at least 12 months after the date they informed Gardaí with 25 percent reporting incidents that had occurred over 10 years prior. By contrast, less than one percent of non-sexual assaults reported had happened one year before they were brought to Gardaí attention. The majority of homicides and assault victims last year were male with 78 percent of murder and manslaughter victims being male. 32 percent of victims of assault were aged between 18 and 29-years-old with a further 32 percent aged between 30 and 44. 14 percent of victims were aged under 18-years-old, while five percent were over the age of 60. The CSO published the statistics today with reservation meaning that the Gardaí's data does not meet the standards required of official statistics published by the CSO. You can find the full CSO report here.