JUSTICE campaigner Natasha O’Brien today (Wednesday) told lawmakers and judges around the country “to do better” in sentencing laws for serious crimes.
The assault victim said she was traumatised by the manner in which Limerick Circuit Court judge Tom O’Donnell imposed a fully suspended three-year sentence on solider Cathal Crotty after he beat her unconscious in an unprovoked and vicious assault in Limerick City.
Subsequent nationwide street protests organised by the socialist feminist group ROSA, in support of Ms O’Brien, called for legal reforms and an end to soft sentences for violence, particularly against female victims.
Bringing her campaign for victim rights to the steps of Limerick Circuit Criminal Court today, where her attacker walked free last week, Ms O’Brien said she was “not criticising the actual sentence given, I am criticising the way it was given, and the reasons for giving it, and the insensitivity in which he (the judge) handled me”.
Before sentencing Crotty to a suspended term, Judge O’Donnell told Ms O’Brien it was significant Crotty had pleaded guilty. This, the judge said, meant there would be no trial, and Ms O’Brien would not have to endure the additional trauma of waiting longer for the case to come to court.
Judge O’Donnell asked Ms O’Brien on two occasions if she realised the “significance” of Crotty’s early guilty plea.
He also told her he had “no doubt” that Crotty would lose his job in the Defence Forces if he imposed an immediate prison term. Crotty had no prior convictions.
The judge said he had to balance this against aggravating factors which included the fact that Crotty was probably intoxicated; the level of violence he used; that Crotty boasted afterwards to friends “two to put her down, two to put her out”; and that Crotty tried to blame Ms O’Brien for the assault, only admitting guilt when Gardaí presented him with CCTV footage of the unprovoked attack.
Before addressing a crowd of about 100 protestors outside Limerick Circuit Criminal Court, Ms O’Brien said she would like to see judges receive “sensitivity training” when dealing with victims of crime.
“These judges are at fault for their absolute lack of empathy and insensitivity. They are dealing with victims in the 21st century, they need to (step up) with the times,” she said.
Later, Ms O’Brien told those gathered outside the courthouse that she wanted her case to be a catalyst for change in how victims are treated in courts.
She said her experience of the court had left her she felt “utterly alone” and she “didn’t want to be alive”.
“I felt discarded, I felt violently attacked, and not at the hands of my attacker – but at the hands of the justice system.”
Appealing for people to continue to support her victims’ rights campaign, she said: “Without your continuing support, this just fades away and becomes another (statistic), another news headline, and I am sick of headlines, I want this to be the last one.”
She said Judge O’Donnell was “not (specifically) at fault…it is the entire system”.
“We need more diversity in our judges, we need more humanity in our judges, we need these courts to be a place of humanity.
“What happened to me, and the sentence is a tip of a gigantic iceberg – this happens to so many victims of so many crimes all over the country.
“There are people inside prisons for not having TV license and so many of our attackers walk free,” said Ms O’Brien.
On Tuesday, the 24-year-old Limerick woman received a standing ovation from politicians in the Dáil, but she had little time for plaudits: “I have to be up in the Dáil babysitting the Taoiseach and our Minister for Justice and I will continue to babysit them until they grow up and do their jobs — This needs to stop now.”
