Martin Nolan give 1 year to guilty pedo.

RandomName2 wrote: »

That isn't of course, the law. The law states that people aged 17 and older in Ireland are able to give consent, regardless of who it is with (apart from close relative, which as far as I'm aware, is illegal regardless of age). This law doesn't apply where the person cannot reasonably give consent, regardless of age (for instance if the person in question suffers significant mental retardation)

In the UK her reading of the law would have been correct, though her position (being one of his teachers) and actions (namely the evident intent when putting off sexual relations until his birthday) both would make this unethical in the extreme.



Like most Europeans I don't think that the age that people can legally give consent should be 17, I think it should be 16. Perhaps including a special clause based upon whether one of the people involved is in a position of authority over the other. But Ireland is always slow in changing its laws. It required multiple deaths before any action was taken in relation to the relaxation of abortion laws, and unless we have some suicides from 18 year olds in relationships with people 2 years their junior who are facing being put on the sex offenders list, we are unlikely to see any movement of this issue.

Given that the law is what it is there is mandatory aspects to sentencing. For instance it is mandatory, I believe, that she is put on the sex offenders list. This is significantly harsher than the 1 year jail time. If the sex offender registration were not on the cards a 6-7 year jail term would probably be equivalent. It will be difficult for her to rebuild her life. She will need to start from scratch, but with a significant number of restrictions upon what she can can do.

The second most significant part of the sentence is the jail time, which is currently 3 years, with two years suspended.

When looking at justice.. I know most people here don't really care about justice, but if you look at justice one asks: how can the wrong be made right? For material loss, how can the plaintiff be made whole?

If the wrong, in this case, was an impact on the boy's education, then how could that be made right? There may be a monetary and emotional cost if the student deems it necessary to change schools as a consequence of this case. Perhaps the teacher in this case may be able to pay some damages to this end, but seeing that she's a newly qualified teacher that hasn't been long in her job I doubt she is swimming in cash. Nevertheless some restitution might be possible here, if necessary.

What other wrongs were committed? Certainly the exposure that this case has had on the life of the student and his family must be damaging. However, that is to do with the case and consequent media coverage, and not the crime itself, therefore it seems prudent to ignore it.

It is hard to know what other harms may have been committed here. It is possible that she used blackmail and emotional manipulation. She seems to have given him gifts, which may indicate this, but I don't have enough details to be able to say for sure. If this was the case, then the emotional damage that this may have caused should be reflected in the sentencing. However, this is more psychological than sexual, and the law (not to mention boards.ie posters ) is more interested in carnal knowledge, so it's straying from what would be considered particularly serious by the court.

So what other harms may she have committed? Bringing her role as custodian and educator into disrepute? That's certainly true, but this strays into the territory of 'making an example' of a particular person to make a point, and is also likely to heavily be informed by her sex, as women in society are usually seen having a more caring role in society than men. I can see some merit in considering these aspects, but I'm nevertheless cautious.

Finally there's the mitigating circumstances off full cooperation and complete admission. Possibly this was motivated by her initially thinking that she was on a solid legal footing. In the same way that making an example of someone to warn off similar behavior is considered by the court, so too is cooperative behavior used to make sentencing more lenient in order to encourage others who may be in the docks to cooperate with the courts. Again I am hesitant to put too much stock on this as it ignores the particulars of the case and is predominantly utilitarian in its ambitions.

Did you want a one line answer? I hope not. I think a one line answer would be nonsensical, and not treating the case with due seriousness.

RandomName2 wrote: »

The minimum age for engaging in sexual activity has, however, been set lower [than adulthood], at 17 years. Lower still, at 16 years, is the age for consenting to medical procedures , leaving school , and the age at which one ceases to be a child for the purposes of employment legislation. The age of criminal responsibility is 12, although it is lower again, at 10 years, in the case of certain offences, including certain sexual offences. It is not entirely clear whether there is a coherent notion of maturity or development which justifies the fixing of these different age brackets. What is clear, however, is that Irish law takes a progressive or gradual approach to the issue of maturity and adulthood. This makes intuitive sense. Rather than seeing the coming of adulthood as a magical process that occurs overnight, the law sees it as developing incrementally. That said, the existence of these different age limits could be a source of practical difficulty.

At 16 the law would be consistent throughout the island of Ireland, which is a positive. Second it would make the 16 threshold, used for many different rights, apply also to consent.

However I think that the age of consent should be set even lower for those engaging in sexual relations with anyone that is a peer. I think an age of consent of 13 or 14 provided that the other individual involved is not more than 3 years older, nor in a position of authority, seems sensible.

Allinall wrote: »

An eighteen or nineteen year old is both a teenager and an adult.

One should be more careful with terminology, or your point is lost.

Strazdas wrote: »

As has been pointed out, had this incident happened in most countries in Europe, it wouldn't even have resulted in a court case.

Personally I think the age of consent is a year too high in Ireland. It will continue to lead to these type of messy court cases in future.