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

Speaking of which = we did have a celebrity trial recently in Limerick which also involved an absolutely brutal beating handed out, where guilty party was also supported by a character reference from a 'commanding officer', and where suspended sentence was the decision.

On the one hand, there is a grave inconsistency if society thinks this crime is worth jail time only where the victims are women.

On the other hand, I think the woman in this particular case would be doing all of society a massive favour if there was an appeal that saw Cathal Crotty do jail time. And I wonder if that did happen, would it open the door for male victims to look for appeals in their cases too.

Not true though: I grew up in Northern Ireland, and was a teenager at a time when there was starting to be a lot of random violence as well as the sectarian stuff - as girls we intervened several times to help some unknown lad who was in the process of being targeted by a bunch of drunken lads. One of us would pretend to be his girlfriend, we'd go over and "gently" help him away, relatively sure that they wouldn't attack a girl. Because back then in the 80s, it wasn't the done thing to beat up random women in the street, even among thugs. I don't know when that changed.

TBF, this was only ever in our own areas, we probably wouldn't have dared get involved if we'd thought it was sectarian, as we'd have been targets then too. But as we only socialised in our own areas that wasn't an issue.

Weird turn alright. But some posts and posters make valid and sensible and “caring” points around this issue. Others seem to be of an attitude that reads “wtf did she expect.”

And just in case of confusion or if my posts start to become reported , I’ve also been contributing to this thread but I’m not the poster referred to above- Thanks.

He didn't just read out the scumbags military record.

And he was not compelled by law, it is not the law of the land that an officer has to attend court and read out anything.

Yeah - to be honest, reading what he said, he didnt seem to be advocating for him at all - unlike the other case I referenced above, where a 'show of support' was shown for the lad who handed out a brutal beating.

Commandant Togher said he was shocked at hearing what Crotty had done to Ms O’Brien.

He said he was “exceptionally disappointed” in Crotty, and “surprised” by his “very out of character” behaviour.

He said he was most disappointed in Crotty because members of the Defence Forces are “expected to keep people safe”.

When asked by Crotty’s barrister, Donal Cronin, if he had been asked by Crotty to come to court on his behalf, Commandant Togher replied that, as a senior army officer, he was officially required as a matter of protocol to attend civilian courts involving members of the Defence Forces.

He explained that this role required him to monitor any legal proceedings and to report back to superior officers on any legal matters that may have “implications” for the future careers of members of the Defence Forces.

In fairly sharp contrast to that other case.

“I think my presence, I wouldn’t have gone there unless I wanted to show him that I was there to support him but also that it doesn’t mean I’m condoning what happened at all, quite the contrary. Listen, it’s over, it has been dealt with by the courts, we move on.”

Hold your horses:

Below

https://search.app/oPxFGF4T2DTmiqYu6

His father on the other hand says its a media witchhunt

That is good news. I hope he has many sleepless nights. What that poor lady suffered was horrific.

..

We do get it. I get it. But the reality is that a woman being attacked for politely asking for someone to stop doing something is far less likely than if a man asks. That is also to be factored in.

But yes, of course it's dangerous and ill-advisable to intervene in any way when there is an aggressive individual involved in a hostile situation.

In this case, it was a young woman who made a very innocuous remark (in a kind way) and she suffered an awful beating from this toerag.

He's been giving this 'gift' for a number of years, Limerick and Ireland will be glad to see the back of him