Gender, going to jail, male victims, etc.: the Caroline Brennan case, etc.

HERE we go again: two good men are dead and two of the participants in the events of the night that brought Mariusz Szwajkos and Pawel Kalite to their terrible end in Drimnagh two years ago have gone free.

Those culprits are both teenage girls. Subtract their contribution to that terrible evening and our two Polish visitors might be alive and well, at home with their loved ones. Despite garda wishes on this matter, the two girls -- who could at least have been charged with common assault -- have been allowed to go free. And the message to teenage she-thugs elsewhere must therefore be that different rules apply to them.

It is of course impossible to say what was the DPP's office's motivation in not seeking to prosecute the two girls. However, evidence given at the trial of David Curran, who murdered the two Poles, placed both girls at the centre of the action. It also placed one of them at the heart of a conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

One witness described a scuffle between Pawel and a local teenage boy and how the girls attacked the Pole.

"The lad in the tracksuit, the two young girls and this older man, they were basically killing the bald chap (Pawel) on the ground," she said.
When the initial brawl was over, the two girls were left there with Pawel.
"One of the girls was carrying a bottle of vodka and the other had what appeared to be a bottle of wine."

As Pawel walked away, a witness said: "One of them gave him a clatter across the face, across the neck. He done nothing. He just crossed the road."

Another witness described the aftermath of this first serious attack. "I saw Pawel, and the two girls hitting him. I asked him if he is okay. He didn't say anything. He looked upset. I noticed a broken bottle of vodka on the footpath and Pawel had a big bump on his head."
Pawel had just minutes to live. Another witness then told of seeing Pawel (earlier) lying on the ground. "(He) picked himself up. He staggered towards the chipper."

Witness said the girls were screaming abuse at Pawel. The witness was so afraid at what he was seeing that he rang the gardai. "The bald guy was heading up the road and the girls were following him and still shouting abuse."

According to another witness, this abuse went on the lines of: "All Polish people are f****rs."

One of the girls then texted Curran four times to tell him of the affray. Ten minutes later, he arrived outside the house where the Poles lived. He drove a screwdriver into the heads of Mariusz Szwajkos and Pawel Kalite, killing both.

That night, he and one of the girls tried to concoct an alibi for them both. She later lied to gardai, denying that she and Curran had been in contact that evening.

In fact, there had been four phone calls and many texts. "Ha," chortled this comely maiden, "I just reading what it says on the news. Ha. **** xxxx." Later she texted: "Ha ha but like I can't believe it. . . Mad night xxxxx."

Later still, she texted: "Do you know what I was thinking, we could say that you and me was only in babysitting cos you and me are the only ones who don't have an alibi."

THIS foul young woman has got away with all her crimes: she participated in a violent attack on an immigrant, she was party to racist abuse and she attempted to pervert the course of justice. And like her similarly complicit girl-friend, she has walked free.

It is too grotesque, but wholly apposite, that at the same time as this trial, our feminist establishment was getting its collective knickers in a twist over a silly advertisement for crisps. Ireland, declared Fiona Neary of the Rape Crisis Network, was a place where "the casual and everyday sexual assault of women is permitted and unchallenged". (Sorry, but just who permits this?) And Susan McKay of the National Women's Council lamented that the ad was "depressing" and represented "old-style sexism".

So, here we are, 10 years into the 21st Century and state-sponsored feminism is still not managing to promote a culture of equality of legal responsibility. Instead, its primary function remains the promotion of the ideology that women are always victims and to seek out examples of such victimhood as proof of a one-way system of injustice.

Two innocent men are dead, victims of a sadistic killing. Two of the catalysts, both of them female, have walked free. And the feminist-egalitarian-multicultural quangos of the State -- that could absolutely have been relied on to denounce such an outcome if the dead had been two immigrant women and two native males had incited their killings -- have stayed completely silent.

Justice and death in modern Ireland -- of which, more tomorrow

By Eimear Cotter

Friday May 14 2010


A SOUTH DUBLIN woman who sat on a pregnant woman's stomach while punching her in the face has escaped without a jail sentence.
Sarah Quill (22) claimed she attacked Paula Murray after Ms Murray and her boyfriend -- Ms Quill's ex -- "jeered" at her.
But a court convicted her and her current boyfriend, Stephen Costello (23), of assault.
They were dealt with under the Probation Act after they agreed to compensate the victim, Ms Murray, who was left with bruises to the body in the roadside assault.
Costello threw the pregnant woman to the ground and kicked her in the side during the attack, a court heard. He had claimed he stood back to watch the catfight -- but the court rejected this.
The pair claimed that they've been subjected to "jeering" by Ms Murray, and her boyfriend, Gavin Tansey, who is an ex-boyfriend of Quill's, on a number of occasions outside Dun Laoghaire courthouse.
Their solicitor, Ronnie Lynam, claimed this behaviour was intended to provoke his clients, but they had ignored it.
The matter was before the court for sentencing after a judge found the defendants guilty of assault and ordered a probation report.
Judge Clare Leonard ordered Quill to pay €250 compensation to the victim. Costello handed over €350 compensation earlier this year.
The defendants had denied assaulting Ms Murray at Wyattville Park, Loughlinstown on May 4, 2007.
Ms Murray had told Dun Laoghaire District Court that Costello threw her to the ground and kicked her three or four times on the side and legs. He then grabbed her neck and pinned her to the ground.
She said Quill sat on top of her, on her stomach, and hit her with her fists in the face
Quill, of Pinewood, Ballybrack, had claimed the victim, an old school acquaintance, hit her first and pulled her hair through an open car window, and she got out of the car to defend herself.
Costello had denied he was involved in the assault, claiming he stood at the side of the road and watched the catfight, as the two women hit and punched each other and rolled about on the ground.
He said he had asked Ms Murray in a "nice, friendly way" why she was threatening to kill his girlfriend. She denied she ever made any threats.
Costello, of Wyattville Park, Loughlinstown, claimed Ms Murray reacted badly to this question, and came over to the car and repeatedly hit Quill and pulled her hair through the open car window.
Mr Lynam said his clients accepted the ruling of the court and were ashamed and embarrassed about their behaviour.
Judge Leonard applied the Probation Act.
hnews@herald.ie
- Eimear Cotter

Women who abuse children
Mark Easton | 17:29 UK time, Thursday, 1 October 2009

The facts of the Plymouth case challenge our understanding of human nature. Not simply the idea that people can find pleasure in the sexual abuse of very young children. But the revelation that women were involved.

But, as I have reported here before, child abuse is far more commonplace than most people comprehend and there are an increasing number of studies suggesting the involvement of women is significantly under-reported.

According to research by the National Centre on Child Abuse and Neglect in the United States, the sexual abuse of children by women "constituted 25% (approximately 36,000 children) of the sexually abused victims" in their study. "This statistic is thought to be underestimated due to the tendency of non-disclosure by victims", the report goes on.

In the UK, Childline says that 11% of the calls received from children alleging sexual abuse suggest the perpetrator is a woman.

The NSPCC says that women are the abusers in 6% of cases highlighted in their study.

However, all these estimates - from the last few years - are far higher than had previously been acknowledged.

Michele Elliott, founder of the children's charity Kidscape and author of the book Female Sexual Abuse of Children: The Ultimate Taboo put it this way today:

"Women abuse children for the same reason men abuse children - for sexual gratification, for power. Quite frankly it is something they enjoy doing. I know that is hard for the rest of us to comprehend but women are no different than men in that case."
In June this year, the Australian child welfare charity Child Wise began a television advertising campaign highlighting the risks from sexual abuse by people entrusted with the care of children. You can see the latest ad here.

Child Wise has calculated that almost a third of sex abuse by women takes place in an organisational setting, notably kindergartens and baby-sitting. The majority of such abusers are not coerced by a man but initiate the abuse themselves. The damage can last a lifetime.

Police in Britain fear that new technology has made all forms of child abuse easier and more commonplace.

As in today's case, the internet allows paedophiles to communicate and share child pornography. Mobile phone cameras mean images can be shot and disseminated around the world within seconds.

A kindergarten close to the Plymouth nursery involved in today's case is banning mobiles with cameras on its premises. But risk can never be eliminated.

Background checks on staff won't spot those who have never abused before. The new vetting scheme currently being rolled out across England, Wales and Northern Ireland would not have helped in this case.

But there is another danger too. That we allow fears about paedophilia to damage the relationship between adults and children and to undermine the trust that makes communities function.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/markeaston/2009/10/women_who_abuse_children.html

Giselle wrote: »

CDfm, thats a huge sweeping generalization that takes no account of the individual circumstances of individual cases.

Generalisations on that scale are always unfair.

Giselle wrote: »

Two wrongs don't make a right, and making it sound like women use these defences without reason, or that we can just go and maim and kill without consequence does nothing to further anyones rights, female or male.

The inequalities exist, but making things worse for women will never automatically make things better for men.

Giselle wrote: »

I never said we were. If a woman uses the battered woman defence, and the judge and jury accept that defence, then justice is done.

Suggesting that women can kill or hurt without consequence, or that they use the defence without reason is not just.

To suggest I consider this to be of equal importance as an exam or football match is insulting. I have never even implied that.

And when a person is acquitted by a court of law, where all the evidence has been heard and considered, and where the defence has been accepted by a jury and judge, we should respect that verdict.

You would be singing a different tune if I suggested that men acquitted of rape should have their defence open to speculation

iptba wrote: »

The thing is that, in the Caroline Brennan case and Anne Burke case, they weren’t acquitted, they were convicted of manslaughter. But it is easy to forget this when the convicted person doesn’t spend time in prison - a very mixed message goes out.