A woman told gardaí that she “zoned out” and “my body just shut down” when her uncle raped her as a 12-year-old, a court has heard. The now 40-year-old woman told gardaí that from the time the abuse began, when she was eight years old, it would happen once or twice a week. I would pick something to look at and just zone out,” the woman told gardaí. ‘Survival instinct’The woman described still using the same technique of zoning out when she finds a situation difficult and said it was “a survival instinct”. In a victim impact report, the woman said her uncle preyed upon her, and that her innocence and childhood were taken away from her.

Source: The Irish Times March 04, 2019 17:35 UTC