Soldier beats a woman unconscious, gets a great reference from his commanding officer, avoids jail.

100%

a disgraceful act by a disgraceful “Judge”

These fuckwits aren’t living in the real world.
I’ve just emailed womens aid to see if there will be any action/lobbying on this.
That poor lady, that could easily have been my wife, my sister, my friend.
This country is a mess. I’m apoplectic after reading this. Ive never bothered contacting TD’s or other local representatives about anything in the past.
i intend to email each and every one of them in their appropriate areas of responsibility.
Jesus we can’t let this stand .
These morons handing out inappropriate sentences have to be removed from their duties before they do any more damage.

Absolute sickening read this. Dirty animal does that to a defenceless woman and a judge comes out with this. Making out he was doing the victim a favor. Really make your blood boil. This disgrace will not go away anytime soon.

But why give them a reference? If someone I know had seriously attacked someone or in the case of Mickey Harte was a sex attacker, I wouldn't be giving anyone a letter saying "ah they were grand with me" would you?

Especially if you knew they were definitely guilty, this guy literally pleaded guilty (only when the video proved he did it unprovoked).

what do you expect the minister for defence to do, or say?

I'll f**king expect him to do exactly what he's been doing for the existence of his tenure in service of the Irish people and that woman who was nearly murdered on the street by a member of HIS defence force. NOTHING.

Exactly. What sort person would stand up in court to give a character reference to a scumbag they know is guilty after doing what he did..

He wasn't there to give a personal reference, he was there as part of his job.

It was only by attending the case he could learn all the facts and report them back to his senior officers.

He stated in court that he was "exceptionally disappointed and surprised" at the evidence and "most disappointed as Crotty as a soldier is expected to keep people safe".

Crotty is about to be an ex soldier, so the man did his job.

This is an awful story. That soldier would be up on a murder charge if a passer by hadn't intervened to pull him off the young woman.

No character witness should have reduced that to a suspended sentence. Violent attacks like this need to have custodial sentences if only to protect the public from these violent criminals.

Yes he needs to make a statement. What do you think he should do? Keep his slithery head down until everybody forgets about it?

I can't remember the last time I wrote to a politician, but my blood is boiling over this.

If anyone wants to copy/paste and mail Michael Martin,

micheal.martin@oireachtas.ie

Maybe enough will make him intervene and order a review into Crottys future in the army.

Dear Minister,

I'm sure you're aware of the recent court case involving the assault of young Limerick woman, Natasha O' Brien by a soldier serving in the Irish army, Cathal Crotty.
A vicious, unprovoked attack that left the victim unconscious, leaving her with serious injuries and long lasting emotional trauma.
You might expect that such a crime, which Crotty was found guilty of would lead to a lengthy imprisonment and dishonourable discharge from the armed services.

But no. A suspended sentence was deemed enough by the trial judge, Tom O’Donnell and Crotty is to be welcomed back into Sarfields barracks in Limerick after a glowing reference from his commanding officer Commandant Paul Togher.

I can only hope that the DPP will be appealing this laughable sentence, but I sincerely hope that you as the Minister for Defence will intervene to ensure that Crotty is drilled out of the army. He is a disgrace to his uniform and shames the brave men and women who serve alongside him.

Yours sincerely,

So judge and boss wanted him to continue to be entrusted with professional use of firearms, maybe carrying out peacekeeping (ahem!) duties…my mind boggles

He literally said the below as well which you left out.... while giving evidence he described him in glowing terms. No doubt this helped with the lightness of the sentence. I am sure he could attend without doing that no?

he is being dismissed from his post in the army.

Most definitely not true.

He didn't just get asked.that day for a reference, he would have supplied it before the.court date.

in terms of the civil machinations of and running of this country…. It’s an absolute basket case of a place nowadays, it really is a mental kip.