A legal shield which protects previously convicted sexual predators should be lifted in cases where the date rape drug has been used on victims said a woman's group yesterday.

Penny Dill, the executive director, of the Women's Resource Centre said the date rape drug Rohypnol is being used and many times victims realise what occurred much later.

She said: "In many cases the woman will not remember what has happened to her and the victim will also not have any bruises or any signs of forced entry.

"Cases of this sort are becoming increasingly hard to prosecute.

"If women suspect that this has happened to them, then they must get themselves tested immediately for traces of the drug."

Ms Dill said just because a woman had no obvious bruising - it did not mean that she had not been raped.

"If someone has previous convictions for sexual offences then his or her record should be made available to the jury," said Ms Dill.

She also said that many offenders receive legal aid to help fight for their innocence and the victims receive nothing.

She said: "I am not saying that people accused of sexual offences should not receive Legal Aid, but I am saying that they have been prepped by their lawyers to be good witnesses.

"But when victims take the stand, children, women and men, they receive no help and many sex predators are going free because they are not prepared for the kind of questions or the process of the court.

"At the moment there is no help for victims - and they should be given the same level of support."

She said some women do not fight back when they are being raped - and then there are no injuries to either party.

Ms Dill said the time line that sexual cases take to come to court should be done expediently.

She said: "To save victims the stress of having to relive the entire experience and we will lobby the Government to turn cases around much quicker.

"Victims want to get on with their lives and it is difficult to have to rehash an entire incident two years down the road."