(Ireland) Shocking court scene as locals back sex attacker (follow-up thread)

The Kerryman ^ | 12/23/2009 | Marissa Reidy

[markomalley]

Some were openly crying and wiping their tears as they wished Danny Foley well just minutes before he was due to be sentenced, while others shook his hand and literally patted him on the back

IT was something that had to be seen to be believed. Fifty or so Listowel locals filing past the broken victim of a sexual assault to shake hands with and embrace the man who broke her.

Some were openly crying and wiping their tears as they wished Danny Foley well just minutes before he was due to be sentenced, while others shook his hand and literally patted him on the back in a show of solidarity.

All the while, the woman he left bruised, scratched and semi naked beside a skip in a local car park in June 2008 cut a lonely figure in the front row of the public gallery as Foley's supporters piled into seats behind her.

With her head bowed, the mother-of-one gripped the hand of her counsellor from the Kerry Rape Crisis Centre, her other hand clutching her stomach.

It was a show of support for a convicted sex offender, that was at best extremely misguided and misjudged, and at worst gave two fingers to the man's victim.

But apparently, according to Foley's brother Tim, it wasn't orchestrated. It was, he said, a coincidence that all these people came to court the exact day Foley was due to be sentenced and all decided to go and shake his hand. None of those people however, (apart from immediate family) were in court when Foley was giving his evidence, or more importantly when details of the assault and its impact on his victim were being painfully detailed by the 24 year old.

To add insult to injury, this woman had to endure what she described as dirty looks and disapproving glances from some of the men and women who came to court, of their own volition, before then having to deliver an emotional victim impact statement that was greeted by sighs and tuts from some.

"I felt intimidated. When I went to the stand and started reading some of them looked away and paid no attention," she told the media at a press conderence on Saturday. "I heard mumbling and talking. They didn't want to hear my statement."

Then this woman had to wipe tears away as she heard a chip shop owner and local priest praise the character of the man in the dock. The man who was convicted of sexually assaulting her.

He was a man with the highest respect for women who didn't have an abusive bone in his body, family friend Fr Sean Sheehy told the court. Foley's former boss, Dermot O'Mahony, meanwhile, spoke of a polite, inoffensive, curteous man who was honest, reliable and whom he held in the highest esteem.

The actions of these people on Wednesday last, December 16, left Foley's victim feeling numb, she said. She likened the scene to a funeral home. Unfortunately, no one was sympathising with her.

"I have no words to describe how that made me feel. Even though my counsellor and sister were there with me I felt as low as possible," she said. "Some of them stared at me and gave me dirty looks as they walked past. It felt like a funeral home more than a court room.

"I was hurt and upset by this. I felt really low. I felt like crying. It felt like I was being told that I was in the wrong and I was not believed, even though he had been found guilty and I knew that he was the guilty person. I felt like the court room was full of people who supported him and were against me, as if I was on trial and I was the guilty person."

[markomalley]

This is a follow-up to an article posted by our own Alex Murphy, Kerry priest who shook hand of sex offender leaves parish.

Either the Irish people are just horrid monsters or there is something a whole lot more that is going on here than is being reported.

[markomalley]

ping for follow-up to previous article.

[thefactor]

Two whole articles and nary a fact about the case in either one. Good reporting, Ireland. /s

How about some facts of the assault, or maybe an indication of what this guys sentence was.

I couldn't get to the link, so if there was any info there, I missed it. What did I miss?

[Lucky Dog]

Either the Irish people are just horrid monsters or there is something a whole lot more that is going on here than is being reported.

Oh, come on, now... You know that the press would never slant a story by failing to report all of the facts. Why, that like saying that fake but accurate isn't really accurate.
/s

[markomalley]

From the accuser’s POV, the accused slipped her a Mickey and then raped her.

From the accused’s POV, she consented to having sex and that, while she had a couple of drinks, she was not too drunk to give that consent.

This article was initially posted here in “religion” because somebody wanted to make a big stink that the local parish priest gave a character reference for the accused, believed a miscarriage of justice was done, and shook his hand after the accused was sentenced. In other words a cheap smear job.

The forensic evidence is not conclusive: there was no primary clinical evidence that she was raped (the bruises and abrasions around the genitalia that are consistent and unique to nonconsensual sex), but there is CCTV footage that they were together and there were marks on her to indicate that they had sex outside on the ground (i.e., she had scratches on her back and legs from the ground)

[Eric in the Ozarks]

The story seems to be a ‘second day PM lead’ piece. I can’t figure out who the bad guy is or what exactly was done.

[GOP_Party_Animal]

No kidding! I kept thinking, okay, why would these people act this way; what’s the other side of the story? Lousy reporting.

[1rudeboy]

Either the Irish people are just horrid monsters or there is something a whole lot more that is going on here than is being reported.

Oh, boy . . . that's a tough one. Let me see . . . an entire ethnic group consists of horrid monsters, or we don't have the whole story. I can't decide. /s

[thefactor]

It was literally an article about handshaking and dirty looks. I guess this reporter was absent the day they taught journalism at journalism school.

[jerod]

Check out the movie ‘Straw Dogs’ for further insight in to rural English & Irish ways.

[fieldmarshaldj]

A lil over the top, ain’t it ?

[dangus]

This doesn’t seem to be support for a sex attacker, but rather support for someone they regard as falsely accused, despite the verdict. I wonder what makes them so certain. The original article describes his pastor giving up his post, rather than back down in his support.

[dangus]

I do wish I knew more about the case. I’m inclined to believe that people who think someone “couldn’t possibly do that” are often wrong; sociopaths are supposedly frequently very charming. Too bad the journalist gives us zero insight into the case.

[flowerplough]

Ask the (disarmed) Irish Republican Army if the Irish people are just horrid monsters or there is something a whole lot more that is going on here than is being reported? The Irish are at least as good as the Sicilians at always looking the other way and seeing nothing, ever.

“The IRA’s public apology this week to its ‘non-combatant’ victims brought back terrible memories for thousands of relatives here, in the North and in Britain. How do they feel about the ‘condolences’ for their ‘grief and pain’? KIM BIELENBERG reports

It took a long time coming. But almost a quarter of a century after Eamon Ryan, a civil servant, was gunned down by the IRA in a bank raid in Tramore, his family like hundreds of others across these islands finally received an apology this week.

There was no personal message of remorse, no letter or visit from a shadowy provisional godfather.

But the tone of the public statement from the republican leadership was seen as unprecedented: the families were offered “sincere apologies and condolences”; the “grief and pain” of relatives were finally acknowledged.”

Saturday July 20 2002 http://www.independent.ie/unsorted/features/thirty-years-on-sorry-is-no—longer-the-hardest-word-300281.html

[dangus]

How's this for over the top:

Now the town is divided on the issue. To me it’s very simple, take Danny Foley’s side and you agree with sexual assault and are therefore a potential rapist or take the other side which rightfully thin[k]s a rapist should be punished by the law.

Here's where I think there's a head which needs rolling:

[A]n escalating controversy over a sex assault case that... prompted the Kerry Rape Crisis Centre (KRCC) to query Circuit Court procedures that allowed 50 people to file past the shocked victim to express their sympathy with her attacker before he was even sentenced.

Since people were wondering about his verdict:

Danny Foley (35) — who is now three days into serving his seven-year prison sentence, with two years suspended...

Apparently, the burly Foley was caught on video camera carrying the "frail" woman to a waste pit behind the bar he worked at as a bouncer. This is Foley:

More info:

The jury during the three day trial had heard that both met in a local nightclub. The woman had a number of drinks and when he bought her a Black Russian shot, she felt sick and wanted to go home.

Mr Foley accompanied her and after initially walking a distance he carried her towards the rear of a car park, where gardai later found him leaning over her. She was half-naked and semi-conscious, and was removed to hospital in a very distressed state...

[The judge stated in his ruling] “No reasonable man could believe a girl or woman in a condition like this could reasonably consent to a sexual encounter of any kind... From the medical evidence it was clear that she suffered extensive bruising, and numerous scratches consistent with being dragged.”

...Foley initially said he had come across her as he relieved himself, but later told gardai [?] he had lied, and claimed they had been together consensually.

He also referred to her as a "wan" ("slut") during the trial. When you read that he confessed to lying, keep in mind that they produced videotape of him carrying her out there.

[dangus]

Also, for those who think the “journalism” is over the top:

I’m not sure about Ireland, but the European tradition of journalism often excludes the American pretenses of objective reporting. We draw a line between “columnist’s” opinion pieces and “journalist’s” news articles which is absent there. If people want another side of the story, they read another author. They don’t necessarily have authors faking objectivity. In this case, however, the reporter’s scant coverage did herself a disservice, since she failed to make her case why such behavior was so outrageous. Perhaps she was confident that her readers were quite well aware.

[fieldmarshaldj]

That pic makes him look like Private Pyle in "Full Metal Jacket" just before he killed R. Lee Ermey.

[B-Chan]

Gardai, plural of Garda = Irish national police

[markomalley]

I can understand the lying in the case: the guy is engaged. Doesn't justify the lying, but it is entirely understandable that he wouldn't want his fiancee knowing about his straying on her. Once you start with a lie, you keep lying.

I could understand, had the situation been an "under the influence" rape: he gets drunk and loses his inhibitions, she gets far drunker than she should be, and they go to it (she, during the act, changes her mind -- thus making it a rape...or afterward has remorse -- and tries to justify herself by claiming rape...or is too inebriated to legally give her consent, which, in some jurisdictions, is inherently rape -- I don't know about Ireland).

Here's the thing that gets me about this incident: her side of the story is that (in essence) he slipped her a Mickey. (She claimed that he insisted on buying her a shot and once she took a sip from the Black Russian he bought she began to feel unwell. She told him her mouth was on fire and she wanted a 'WKD' drink which he bought, but she did not finish it.)

Now, as far as I have read, a person who does did not take advantage of the circumstances, he would have premeditated the circumstances. I would have a hard time imagining a person doing that just once. Or doing that on a last minute spree. A person would have to premeditate such an act.

If a guy does that more than once, word will get around among the women, particularly in a small town. And in this circumstance, word would leak to the men as a result of this. In a small town, word is going to get around. I would think that such a word would be used in prosecuting a case and would inhibit such a fraternal send-off by townspeople.

So like I say, something just doesn't add up.

[onedoug]

GUILTY!

(By the standards here regarding women)