Here’s an article discussing another horrific sexual violence case that came before the Irish courts this week:
https://gript.ie/listen-judge-going-to-work-doesnt-make-you-any-less-of-a-rapist/
‘…his work history was also taken into consideration. What’s that about? Is the standard of justice in Ireland really ‘Yeah, he’s a perverted monster who rapes his wife and seriously abuses his stepdaughter, but sure he’s never been shy of a day’s work.’?
Are we to take it, for example, that unemployed sadistic rapists and abusers would get longer sentences?
….It has to be said that the courts sometimes have a way of operating that to you and I may seem strange or counterintuitive, but sometimes they also operate in what can only be termed as ‘bullshit’.
That a man who unleashed a campaign of sexual torture – how else would you describe it? -on his own wife and stepdaughter should benefit in any material way from something as obtuse as his work record is beyond me.
I don’t think anyone would dare attempt to mitigate the crimes of, say, Jimmy Saville by remarking on his record of punctuality.’
Irish judges seem to have a strange reluctance to ‘ruin’ a man’s reputation over sexual assault and always seem open to character references written by friends or barristers arguing the accused does good in the community. And don’t get me started on judges taking seriously the pleas of ‘he had a tough childhood’ - lots of people have tough childhoods and don’t commit sexual or violent assault.