Dear Justice System…

Today, once again, but maybe in the most spectacular way yet, you have shown yourselves up and let your country down in one swift movement.

Today, parents all over our little land, weep at the absolute sham of a sentence handed down to a paedophile; to a man who groomed and abused a child; To a man who was so caught up in his own power and self worth that he felt himself justified to destroy the life of a child for his own sick gratification.

Actually, I should not use the word “man”. No. This excuse for a human being is better suited to the term monster. Because that is what he is. He dismissed the most important things in the world; the two things that parents strive to provide for their children; childhood and innocence. He took both of these things from a little girl. She will never get them back and she shall live with the scars and memories of his actions for the rest of his life.

But because he was one of the boys, because he had money and social standing and a solid reputation, because he offered a futile plea of “guilty”, because he has “suffered enough”, a Judge, someone to whom we entrust the justice of the nation and by proxy, the safety of our children, a “Judge“, decided that his punishment for his crime, should be a 2 and a half year detention.
2 and a half years.
30 months.
I’ve had longer indigestion…

This vulnerable child was forced to act in ways that children should NEVER act, and by the admission of the Monster was groomed and assaulted by him. To measure her ordeal AGAINST the bruised reputation of the man who was caught abusing her, would suggest that this monster should spend the rest of his life in prison.

An eye for an eye. A life for a life.
But no.
The only life sentence being served is by her.
He has 2 and a half years in the naughty corner, where no doubt he’ll be quite comfortable and well looked after and offered all sorts of CBT… I wonder will he be safe from the monsters…?

I don’t usually comment on such issues on my blog. I prefer to keep it to the trials and tribulations of parenting, to provide laughs and to provide empathy, but when we realise that we live in a society which protects the predators who pose the most danger to our precious children, I can’t remain silent.

Shame on Him.
Shame on the judge and whoever else helped or influenced the decision to insult the strong and brave young woman who stood up to her abuser.
Shame on our justice system for throwing us all 100 years into the past.

Tonight, we shake our heads in disbelief that in a society as progressive and accepting as Ireland, we are still allowing the “Old boys” to get off with their indiscretions because of who they are and who they know.

As a woman, I despair.
As a Mother, I weep.

As an Irish citizen, I hang my head in shame that we have let our children down.

Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone…

it’s with poor Humphries in the jail.