A LETTER TO THE EDITOR: SUSPENDED SENTENCE FOR SOLDIER WHO VICIOUSLY ASSAULTED YOUNG LIMERICK WOMAN. BY SANDRA HARRIS.

 This is the transcript of a letter I sent to the Irish Times newspaper on 21/06/2024.

A LETTER TO THE EDITOR: SUSPENDED SENTENCE FOR SOLDIER WHO VICIOUSLY ASSAULTED YOUNG LIMERICK WOMAN.

Dear Editor,

I am disgusted and appalled at the ridiculously lenient ‘sentence’ handed down to soldier Cathal Crotty this week by Judge Tom O’Donnell. In May 2022, Crotty severely battered Natasha O’Brien on a Limerick street because she attempted to stop him shouting homophobic slurs at fellow passers-by. ‘Two to put her down, two more to put her out,’ Crotty boasted on social media after the attack. This is not a man, this is a despicable coward and bully.

What happened to Zero Tolerance of violence against women? What is the point of Gardai and government ministers urging women to ‘come forward’ and report their rapes and incidents of domestic violence or street violence at the hands of men if the men then get off scot-free? What kind of deterrent is that? What message does it give the abusers? Batter and beat whoever ye want, lads, and sure it’ll be grand, the Judge’ll let ye off?

What is the point of holding beautiful vigils and remembrances for innocent victims like Aisling Murphy and running radio campaigns to ‘call out’ male violence against women when we continue to let these same women down when it comes to the crunch, to putting our money where our mouths are?

Murdered and battered women are on the News most weeks. Bereaved families mourn the loss of beloved mothers, daughters and sisters who died at the hands of husbands, boyfriends and total strangers. We hear of Victim Impact statements so powerful they make us bleed in sympathy with the victims, yet the courts can still turn around and pull a stroke like this.

How dare Judge Tom O’Donnell give Crotty a fully-suspended sentence for fear that his ‘army career’ might be jeopardised by a custodial sentence? Firstly, Crotty, this ‘prince among men,’ is unlikely to ever rise to the heights of a person who changes the world for the better with their good works and actions, so the Judge needn’t have worried himself unduly regarding his ‘career.’

Secondly, what about the victim’s career? How dare it take second place to the defendant’s? Ms. O’Brien, a courageous and articulate young woman, lost her job due to the mental anguish and distress caused by Crotty’s unprovoked and savage attack. The physical effects of concussion, a broken nose and severe bruising and swelling to her face and body, would have caused her no small amount of pain and suffering also.

I doubt if the ‘pocket money’, the three thousand euros she is to receive for her trouble from Crotty, will compensate her for the nightmares, PTSD, anxiety and depression she will likely suffer for the rest of her life, thanks to his brutality. How much is a woman’s life/well-being/sanity worth? Not very much according to this Judge, it seems.

Why did the Judge praise Crotty to the skies for his guilty plea? Is he not aware that Crotty only pled guilty after CCTV footage of the assault gave the lie to his nonsense about Ms. O’Brien’s having struck the first blow? He had no choice but to plead guilty, therefore why should he receive praise and a non-custodial sentence for it?

Ditto his ‘previously good character,’ lack of previous convictions and the glowing character reference from his superior officer, Commandant Paul Togher. These things are all well and good, but how do they negate the savage attack, caught on camera, made by Crotty on an innocent woman? If the victim had died from the attack, as she very well could have done, as other women have done before her, would the fact that Crotty had ‘never done anything like this before’ have still been enough to spare him a custodial sentence?

One more thing. Cathal Crotty’s male friends stood by and didn’t intervene when he starting beating up Miss O’Brien. Why didn’t they intervene? Did they find the attack funny, something to laugh at? Were they afraid of Cathal Crotty?

I would prosecute these men for allowing evil to prevail by standing by, watching and doing nothing. In the Hollywood movie THE ACCUSED (1988), they prosecuted the bystanders to a gang-rape for egging on the rapists and doing nothing to stop the rape itself. Yes, this happens in a movie, but we could do something similar here, I daresay, if we truly wanted to.

Can you imagine, though, the million and one reasons our government ministers would give us for not being able to do something so radical? Legislation, blah blah blah. It’s a free country, blah blah. Our hands are tied, blah blah blah. Maybe in a few years, blah blah blah. Blah blah blah indeed.

The Director of Public Prosecutions has twenty-eight days to appeal Judge Tom O'Donnell's decision. It is to be hoped they do the right thing and act quickly. And where is the Justice Minister, Helen McEntee, in all this? As a woman herself, she has to understand how much of an insult it is to Natasha O’Brien for Cathal Crotty to receive such a ridiculously soft sentence.

This young woman received no justice in the courts this week. It was a travesty of a ruling, a judgement almost of ‘boys will be boys’ and women will just have to like it or lump it. This sentence needs to be overturned and Crotty sacked from his job and jailed for an appropriate amount of time. Until that is done, our ‘Zero Tolerance’ of violence against women policy is simply another fairy story we tell ourselves in these new ‘woke’ times.

Regards,

Sandra Harris.