Sure it was only a prank
This one just leaves me blankly unable to understand. The Irish Times:
A serving Irish soldier who beat a woman unconscious in a random street attack, and boasted about it afterwards on social media, has been given a suspended sentence.
You see what I mean. Wtf? Why? Why in hell? Why have any laws at all then?
Cathal Crotty (22), of Parkroe Heights, Ardnacrusha, Co Clare, had initially tried to blame his victim Natasha O’Brien (24), by wrongly telling gardaí who arrested him that she had instigated the attack at O’Connell Street, Limerick on May 29th, 2022.
However, after gardaí showed Crotty CCTV footage of him setting upon Ms O’Brien without provocation, he admitted his guilt, Limerick Circuit Criminal Court heard.
Well he’s clearly a great guy so that must be ARE YOU KIDDING
Hours after the attack Crotty boasted to friends on Snapchat: “Two to put her down, two to put her out,” in reference to striking Ms O’Brien four times.
Ms O’Brien, who was not known to Crotty, was walking home with a woman friend after working a shift at a pub, when Crotty grabbed her by her hair and punched her to the ground.
He continued holding her hair with one hand and punching her face with his other first as she lost consciousness, the court heard.
Ms O’Brien, who sustained a broken nose and bruising, and suffered nightmares and panic attacks afterwards said she thought Crotty was going to kill her.
Crotty fled when a male passerby intervened, however his friends remained at the scene.
What a lovely lovely lovely man; of course he should not be punished.
From her victim impact statement:
“The physical injuries I sustained were devastating; a severe concussion, a broken nose, severe swelling, and bruising on both arms, shoulders, head, right upper thigh, left eye, cheek and jaw.
“I spent the following weeks and months attending hospital and doctor appointments, and due to persistent concussion symptoms I was deemed ‘high–risk’ for a brain bleed, and I received a battery of tests including a head CAT scan.
“A sense of constant dread and isolation was unlike anything I have ever experienced and I spiralled into self-destructive behaviours and lost all interest and motivation for life.
“Basic tasks at work became incredibly difficult and I ultimately lost my job due to my rapidly declining performance. I became numb and detached from reality, living in perpetual fear of seeing him again,” she added.
Oh. He ruined her body and her mind and her life. Well no wonder the judge thinks he should get a pat on the back for it.
There’s no last minute plot twist here. It’s incomprehensible.
Not only should he be in jail and out of the army, but his friends should suffer some consequences for not acting to stop him. If they’re in the army too, and so, as the article notes, “expected to keep people safe”, they should at least be punished for dereliction of duty.
It’s absolutely staggering that the army wanted to keep him on, and the judge bent over backwards to enable them to do so. The only person who isn’t diminished by this case is the anonymous passer-by.
Just goes to show, yet again and after thousands of previous examples, that the Law is an ass. (Sorry, donkeys for that insult. I’ll reframe that: the Law is a shitpot.)
Instead of a huge cohort of individual judges, each with their own prejudices, attitudes and axes to grind, maybe Artificial Intelligence could be utilised by the courts internationally to produce a spreading movement of justice both being done, and seen to be done.
Utterly meaningless; randomly attacking people for fun is unlikely to be dissuaded by punishing the guilty. I can see the wisdom in confining him indefinitely though so he doesn’t have the capability to do it again.
But as to the army keeping him, recruitment is down everywhere and there’s a war in Europe brewing; that’s a pretty good argument for keeping your soldiers on (and consigning him to a penal battalion).
So, given massive credit for the harm a conviction would do to his military career, and given credit for his guilty plea.
Except, he only pled guilty after being shown video proof he started the fight. He actually tried to blame the victim. that should have negated any credit for the guilty plea. As for the army going to bat for him – who was the Aussie Army commander who said ‘the standard you walk past is the standard you accept’? It should be a massive red flag to the army that they think he’s wonderful, yet he was prepared to do this, his mates were prepared to let him (and laugh about it given the snapchat), and that he lied when caught. That’s a failure of command and a failure of culture and systems.
Rob, that would be Lieutenant General David Lindsay Morrison who led an inquiry many considered a Kangaroo Court against officers who had already been investigated and cleared.
The words you quote he attributed to General David Hurley, currently Governor-General of Australia and a well known grifter.
They were in a speech written for Morrison by Lieutenant Colonel Cate McGregor, born Malcolm Gerard McGregor. Morrison was also responsible for defacing the Australian Army’s iconic Rising Sun badge with the QUILTBAG Colours.
Ah well, it was a good line anyway.
I’ve posted a link to the Times article on FaceBook. And got an instant ‘hate speech’ warning.
Wtf???
I’ve just been reading more reporting on it, it gets crazier by the hour.