Clostoken Priest Writes Testimonial For Mayors Rapist Son?

cealabeala

I opened the Galway Independent yesterday and saw the headline "Loughrea Man Given Ten Years For Sex Assault." I grew up in Loughrea, so I read the article. The convicted man is Brian Maher, son of Michael Maher who has just finished his term as Mayor of County Galway. The Mahers are from Clostoken, which is part of my parish, so they live very close to my family home. Brian Maher is 25, four years older than me, and while I don't remember ever meeting him, it's likely that we have crossed paths at some point.

Two years ago in Galway city, Brian Maher grabbed a 36 year old nurse by the neck, dragged her down an alley, hit her head off a wall, then the ground, before punching her repeatedly in the head and face. He then tore off her jeans and underwear, and raped her. The victim suffered a broken nose, a fractured cheekbone, vaginal bruising, multiple abrasions and lacerations, and lost a tooth. The victim now suffers from severe post traumatic stress disorder and is expected to continue to suffer from this long into the future, even with professional help. During the attack, she thought Maher was going to kill her.


The judge who tried Maher, Mr Justice McCarthy, said "he could not take into consideration a testimonial from a local priest, which referred to the standing of Maher's family in the community."

I am not sure of the identity of this priest, but it's likely to be my own parish priest since I share the same parish. It's funny how unsurprised I always am to hear about the crooked things members of the Church get up to, yet I'm shocked at this mans behavior since I know him.

afkasurfjunkie

fair play to the judge.
didnt something similar happen in kerry a couple of years ago too?

ihaddajoin

At the end of the day no matter what the Maher family's standing was within the community prior to the vicious attack that reputation is now in tatters. A poster mentioned that the perpetrators father had volunteered with many organizations within the community - what has that got to do with anything?

The victim is a NURSE, I'm sure she has done more for our community than the perpetrator's father.

Did anyone read the Irish mail on Sunday? The victim gave her account of the crime. Truly shocking, it allured to the fact that more than a serious sexual assault had happened. Did anyone else read? It seems that the Gardai made a serious cock up as well.... Can anyone verify?

Its scary to imagine that this sickko will be out within the community again in a few years. If I lived in that parish I wouldn't let my daughter out without pepper spray for fear of that vile piece of work having another "mental" "cocaine" influenced outbreak and raping another innocent unsuspecting victim. Lets hope they can rehabilitate this sex offender to the point where he is "safe" to be around women without the urge to attack them viciously like he did to that nurse.

As for the Priest, he should be utterly ashamed of himself. The hurt and upset that this must have caused the VICTIM cannot be put into words. I cannot understand why the church got involved in this. The priests are then surprised when people don't go to mass.... You cannot justify Maher's actions nor compensate some prison time because his family were of good standing in the community.

I think this part of Galway has some real issues with Sex offenders, seems to be quite a few of them floating about that town....

Finally, if Maher's father is so good at volunteering and has plenty of experience in this field, may I suggest he does fundraising for the Galway Rape Crisis Network to help fund the years of counseling the victim of his son's crime and other women who have so unfortunately been the victims of these heinous crimes need into the future. It would go some way in showing how upstanding they were in the community whilst also publically condemning the sick actions of his son.