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

Ridiculous he got credit for pleading guilty. He initially said she punched him until he was shown the cctv, he had no choice but to plead guilty. Lucky for the passerby intervening, his friends obviously made no effort to stop him.

There's no obligation on any employer to give a reference in a criminal case. It doesnt happen in most cases. Its entirely voluntary.

This was the ultimate insult from our Defence Forces to that unfortunate woman who gave a very telling answer to the Judge.
https://www.limerickleader.ie/video/home/1534014/this-is-not-justice-limerick-woman-s-anger-as-man-who-viciously-attacked-her-gets-suspended-sentence.html

For a senior officer to go into the witness box and sing the praises of the defendant, having seen CCTV of this dreadful attack, is far worse than usual “letter of recommendation” handed into courts.

Judging by newspaper reports (which may be incomplete), it appears that Commadant Paul Togher would have left that court without uttering a word of condemnation about this appalling attack if he had not been cross-examined by prosecuting Counsel.

What a farce this makes of the Tribunal of Inquiry which is being set up today and will cost millions to investigate sexual harassment in the Defence Forces

https://www.newstalk.com/news/women-of-honour-welcome-tribunal-into-bullying-allegations-1737312

Nonsense! There has never been a suspended sentence for such a vicious unprovoked attack on a complete stranger.

This case is clearly aggravated by many factors and should have resulted in serious jail time.

Once a case goes to court the victim is practically forgotten about. The justice system and the judiciary don't give a damn about the victim and what they went through its all about the poor alleged perpetrator.

Unfortunately that's not the case, this judge has history of letting violent scumbags walk free.

A homeless man kicked and punched over 100 times, in a random attack. Victim heard pleading with them to stop beating him…

How can this judge sleep at night.

https://www.sundayworld.com/crime/courts/teen-who-took-part-in-savage-attack-on-homeless-man-walks-free-from-court/a1769685260.html

Seems very apparnet in this case. But not all cases. Plenty times we get it right and we dish out justice. There are some wonderful people doing this country a great service in the justice system. But, at times I feel there are some really bizarre and poor calls made. Overall I would have to say we are too soft on serious crime. Much too soft. And it's a huge reason why scumbags continue to commit serious crime

The Army needs to court martial Pvt. Crotty forthwith or the top Brass will be hauled over the coals by the politicians who see the public outrage at this case.

Wondering how long it would be before someone brought up asylum seekers. People just cant help themselves. Let's just discuss this case without bring up external nonsense.

Every Judge in every juristriction will give leniency for a guilty plea, it's not because they want to but because they have to.

A guilty plea saves the state enourmous money and time and if a Judge does not acknowledge this with a more lenient sentence than the maximum allowed the defendant will have the sentence overturned on appeal.

The injustice in this case is the Judge was far too lenient in the sentence he imposed, his suspending the entire sentence imposed was ridiculous and his attitude towards the victim was abbhorrent.

Yes, I understand he may not have gotten the max sentence

Here's one for legal eagles: does a guilty plea absolutely mean you CANNOT receive the max sentence, or can a judge use discretion and still apply a max sentence?

In murder a guilty plea still means a "mandatory" life sentence…just one I thought of. Only sentence available, so little different I guess

What were the lads who were with this scumbag doing while he assaulted this lady???

Huh?

So he has to report back to his senior officers, grand.

Why did he have to address the court? What has that got to do with reporting back to the defence forces?

On the face of it the mitigation in this case is quite high.

Guilty plea, his young age, first time offence, his background and work history. It wouldn't be unique that a suspended sentence was handed out in these circumstances.

The judge was correct when he stated the case could drag on for another year or 2, but the claim that the victim was spared the hassle of a trial is an assumption. She could have welcomed a trial to get every detail of what he did on the record. She seems a very strong person. It's not clear in the article but she appears to suggest she would have welcomed a trial, that she was traumatised anyway.

There was multiple witnesses and the attack was recorded, so the Judge should have gave him zero for a guilty plea. Even considering the cost and timing. Guilty pleas should definitely be rewarded, but this isn't one of them.

The aggregating factors in this case are immense. Young lady walking home from her job attacked. That is about as serious as it gets in terms of circumstances. The sustained brutality of the assault and the resulting physical and mental injuries pushing this again into the higher bracket of seriousness.

But what certainly pushes it into a custodial sentence is 2 factors. The fact he grabbed her hair, effectively held the back of her head as he punched her, that's how you kill someone, your head cannot go backwards to at least minimise the blows.

And the icing on the cake for me was gloating on social media "hours later". What sort of fúcking cretin gloats about beating up a girl to his friends?

The DPP should definitely appeal it if they actually have grounds to do so.

I think we need a mechanism to impeach judges in this country over madness like this. It's absolutely insane. As to the Army - WTF? Are they trying to emulate the Russian Army or something? Giving cover for violent sociopaths is something I'd expect from the Russians as they need bodies for their insane war of aggression in Ukraine, but what on Earth are officers of the Irish army trying to accomplish here?