Soldier beats a woman unconscious, gets a great reference from his CO. Jailed after appeal

How come this supposedly intelligent judge did not understand that a criminal conviction would result in a dishonourable discharge from the army, and why did the Gardai not charge

Much of the focus of this attack has been on Crotty and the Army officer. His friends seem to be flying under the radar here. Wtf were they doing while he was pummelling the poor lady into the ground? Are they on CCTV I wonder standing looking at the attack.

What's unusual is a man beating a woman and then bragging about it. What planet is this guy from??

“I’m his father. You know and I know it’s the media that’s put him here as well,” he said."

As a teacher, my experience is that we find this attitude so much now with parents. "It's everyone else's fault, not my angel. They're the victim here." Parents or their children don't take ownership of their actions. How can the son have any moral compass with a parent like that. "Black cat, black kitten."

I do believe Mr Crotty, that nobody, but your son put himself in this.

There are several leaps there. First of all we don't know if Crotty was working up to a homophobic attack.

Also, we don't know if Crotty attacked the victim because she was a woman. If a man had said something to him about his homophobic comments and was attacked with the judge imposing a suspended sentence and making the same comments about the perp's career, would it be because the victim was "just a man"?

What we do know is that violent assaults happen all the time and and more often than not, the victims are male. And we also have a problem with lenient and inconsistent sentencing. The feminist NGOs are latching onto this case and trying to make it about institutional misogyny which is nonsense.

Tell that to my elderly relative (male) who was beaten and stabbed in his own home in an aggravated burglary. Perp got a suspended sentence with playing GAA, having a girlfriend and having a job all brought up by the defence in court. Did this case make RTE or any national media? Of course not, just a run of the mill assault.

I thought there was going ot be a change where if you gave a written reference you had to come into the court and deliver it in person under oath this was to stop people giving GAA & rugby stars brilliant references during rape trials. Obviously dint happen. The corruption in the world is beyond a joke !

If they are just standing there then in fairness I don't think much can or indeed should be done to them

They may or may not be scumbags too or they could just be easily led or maybe caught by surprise by what yer man did...

The problem is imo the people that commit the crimes aren't suffering adequate consequences.

It's been that way for decades, peopleare wandering around with 100s of previous convictions for similar offences in some cases.... something is clearly not working.

I, wrongly or rightly and I'm open to correction/debate on this think there are a number of factors at play when I hear about what I consider to be the nonsensical farce our justice system has fallen into

In no particular order, ie: not sure how true or how much of an influence these factors have on where we are at the moment and I'll reserve my own opinion on these until the end and I've numbered them so it's easier to refer back

1. There is a certain lets call it "school of thought" (maybe ideology would be a better description) out there that by convicting people or handing out more robust punishment you aren't solving anything and convicting them of a crime means you are trapping them into continuing to commit crime...so therefore it's best to be lenient and try to rehabilitate.....

2. The state has failed or deliberately not created much in the way of additional prison spaces (even though population has risen) ...thus there is nowhere to put many of the offenders if they were convicted so the pressure probably comes back on the judge to only impose a prison sentence as a last resort....this is only speculation but I often wonder would a judge that handed out prison sentences like confetti at a wedding be more unpopular within the system as certain other judges that go the opposite way are outside of it....this imo is linked to an ideology that the state is better off having less and less involvement in services/institutions etc etc so less cost and less exposure to legal problems later....preferring instead privatesector (to take over stuff in its entirety it shouldnt imo) or public private partnership, or ngo etc etc....

3. The gardai (and I'm basing this on what I've witnessed over the last 30 years and stories my father/family told me etc so in fairness its anecdotal) have very little authority or incentive to deal with the recidivist low life scumbag and head the ball in the everyday scheme of things…and I personally don't blame them at all....you do your job, risk assault and then the scumbag walks out of court smiling in the end....the system creates pressures to focus on policing the generally law abiding or less problematic than tackling the more dedicated antisocial offender..taken with points 1 and 2 above this further emboldens the violent thug types and general low level low IQ scumbags.....the people more directly in contact with them/those at the coalface aren't really a threat unless things really come to head and that leads not to fear of consequences or viewing police as a necessary function for a reasonable society but derision and hatred within large parts of a community only making it a more fertile ground for more directed profitable types of criminal enterprise for the more intelligent members of the criminal fraternity

4. There are little or no meaningful consequences at the other end of the scale for white collar crime and skullduggery either (or they are not visible enough) ..... this can be motivator to, when a number of your public reps and successful wealthy prominent individuals engage in less than honourable dealings and fail to suffer consequences or it takes years and years for them to occur it can be corrosive

5. In my little head it occurs to me there will always be some level of crime, meaning there will always be a need for some level of policing, legal system etc ....however the legal profession is currently incentivised to not not catch all the fish...much better to let the little ones go and have a nice healthy source of future revenue.....we don't incentivise actually solving the problem and reward for good outcomes like a reduction in offences/crimes etc to create pressure to travel in that direction....just like we don't incentivise our public representatives to travel in the right direction....they are only incentivised to get re-elected by any means and then you get a hodge podge of sometimes good sometimes highly questionable actions etc...I think this one is probably the weakest but can't help wondering if there's a grain of truth that part of the system itself wants to keep a healthy supply of scrotes at the ready rather than apply consequences or reform the maximum number

Anyway...there you have it, my outline on how I think the whole thing has degenerated into a dysfunctional system and anyone that tries to change it will face an uphill struggle.

Fwiw this amateur (possibly naeive moron) thinks there could be a gradual incremental remedy for this

If you can't increase prison spaces etc and sentences mean they can't get a job etc then there still needs to be consequences.......for the ones on social welfare that come to the attention of the law repeatedly (multiple convictions) then a gradual reduction in the social welfare payments and then if they show up after that for offences related to making money other ways (drug dealing, robbery etc) then you do go to prison or if its such a holiday for some as we often hear then you work at something unpleasant (away from people's houses so you don't get to case your next joint etc)

There has to be some form of real consequences .....there's a whole cohort of people out there that can get creative when it comes to letting people off I see no reason why we can't be a little creative when it comes to consequences for being a **** too....there needs to be an occasional stick as well as plentiful carrots too

And mandatory jail terms for serious violent offences might help too....if you rape or assault someone and it can be proven and there are little or no excuses beyond a hard life/childhood or simple thuggery then you should do the time....drugs or temporary insanity etc shouldn't be a defence either and it shouldn't matter what section of society you come from....you should have to see consequences.