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

If ya didn’t know the details of the case you’d almost think the CO was discussing Crotty after he was in court for stealing a fooking apple.

Correct. Section 110 of the Defence Act 1954

Non-liability of person convicted or acquitted by court-martial to be re-tried by civil court.

110.—Where a member of the Defence Forces is convicted or acquitted by a court-martial of an offence such person shall not be liable to be tried subsequently by a civil court for that offence.

And does "beating up a woman" form part of the performance evaluation? AFAIAA it only evaluates things that the person has done within the context of work.

He wouldn't presumably have had multiple opportunities to beat up women so his PE should be silent on that.

Exactly.

Good but then was the judge on about when he said he wouldn't jail him so as not to damage his career? Maybe he can jail him now?

Who the hell filled me with the sh1te I posted…

My understanding, and don’t shoot the messenger here, is that there are defence forces regulations laid down for such circumstances by law - I believe it’s still unclear why procedurally, this record was read out - but note, defence forces are no ordinary employer- there may be certain protocols to adhere to in criminal trials - we’ll wait and see

As someone who was charged with the same thing ang got a 3 year sentence with 1 year suspended I don't understand this either.

There were a lot of things that made this assault even worse. The fact that it was a random assault, in a woman, what he was doing beforehand and then boasting about it. With all that I am sure most people would think he deserved to go to prison. He probably thought he was going too.

The best thing he had was no previous convictions and he was only 20 when he did it. Is it definite he was a soldier back then? I was a bit older and had previous

He probably didn't believe his luck when the Judge said about not jailing him as he would lose his career. If anybody goes to prison and has a job they will lose their job - I did. That's what happens.

I was in the Army too and went to court for public order stuff and there was an Officer there with me so that's pretty standard if you are a soldier. He said just a very short few comments about me nothing bad but not saying I was great either. From what I know about the Army he will get discharged. They get rid of lads for failing drug tests. The Army wont be happy with him being shown all over the place in his uniform. With him probably getting discharged what the Judge said doesn't make any sense.

Have to say though would gate to be him now. Everybody knows his name, his face and where he's from and where's he's based. If he had if been sentenced yesterday probably would have been a small but inline ir in the papers and that would be it. He would just be another new prisoner wherever he got sent to but instead he is enemy number 1.

Despite what we do and how bad it is it is possible to feel really bad about what you did and wishing you hadn't done it. You can feel very sorry for the victim but you will try and do everything you can to stay out of prison or get a shorter sentence. Nobody wants to go to prison.

Given all the controversy I am sure it's not over yet. I am a different person now than I was then and hope I will not do what I did before again and he might be the same

.

You say you were charged with same thing? Beating a woman (you didn’t know) unconscious?

He said just a very short few comments about me nothing bad but not saying I was great either.

This just backs up my suspicion that Togher had no legal requirement at all to be so fulsome in his praise. He could have just done what the officer in your case did and say very little, but chose not to.

The thing about "leading questions" is a red herring in my eyes. Togher isn't on trial, he wasn't a witness, there was no legal requirement for him to do anything but offer the bare minimum.

So not just a statement of his record then, but also a personal evaluation. Not just "what are the DF's expectations of him?" Because he said it was "out of character", implying that he knows what would be "in character" for Crotty.

Which is exactly the problem here.

Personally, if I were asked to give my (positive) opinion of someone's character after they had launched an unprovoked attack on someone, lied about it by saying she had attacked him first, and also boasted about it on social media, I would be so horrified at how WRONG my judgment of their character had obviously been that I would not judge it a fit opinion to give in court.

Instead, Togher still thought his judgment of Crotty sufficiently reliable to suggest that the proven beating was somehow "out of character", not that Togher had been wrong to think Crotty would never do such a thing. Since, clearly, he did do it.

Togher's arrogance is impressive.

Australia for him id imagine. That is where id be heading if I was him.

The glowing reference Togher gave him is hard to understand: your description of a far more reserved "statement of fact" type reference seems more logical. I can't see how he felt able to say it was "out of character" - how could he know? I don't suppose he went out drinking with him regularly. And courteous? WTF? Are soldiers ever not courteous to their commanding officers??

WoWould he get a visa with a criminal record like that?

I'd say he's limited to Europe or a life on the dole, he might pick up some cash in hand jobs here and there.