Such a brave woman, you cant help but feel for her. This country is an absolute disgrace.

Even worse I thought was the images of her mother ( I presume it was ) walking out of court with the father . It looked as if she was supporting him rather than her daughter .

The fact that a known, convicted, tried and charged paedophile has been allowed out is astounding. Not forgetting the years of horrible abuse suffered by his daughter, who is responsible if he commits a sexual crime against a child now?

Great to hear that the people are getting out on the streets in support of this brave lady….

Disgraceful. A man gets six years for not declaring the right tax on imported garlic, and this guy is allowed to walk free, even after pleading guilty in court?? What is wrong with the world these days..

She has my Support 100%. What an evil man her father is.

The reasons given for the suspended sentence was his age and his state of health, however the prison services confirmed that they would be able to manage his health conditions. There is therefore no valid reason why that disgusting excuse for a father should be allowed to ever see the light of day again. My heart breaks for Fiona, she is so brave and deserves justice. How anyone could violate an innocent child is unfathomable, and for a father to do that to his own child? How could her mother standby and allow it? My child is the most precious person in my life, so “parents” like that don’t deserve the title!

Somewhat of a contrast with what happens in the good ol’ USA: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/23/nyregion/nechemya-weberman-sentenced-to-103-years-in-prison.html?emc=na&_r=0

The intro:
New York Times, January 22, 2013

An unlicensed therapist and respected member of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn was sentenced on Tuesday to 103 years in prison for repeatedly sexually abusing a young woman, beginning the attacks when she was 12.

The therapist, Nechemya Weberman, 54, a member of the Satmar Hasidic community of Williamsburg, did not react as the judge sentenced him. The victim, now 18, who delivered an impassioned statement asking for the maximum sentence to be imposed, dabbed away tears.

“The message should go out to all victims of sexual abuse that your cries will be heard and justice will be done,” Justice John G. Ingram of State Supreme Court said before imposing the sentence, which was close to the longest the law allows. Justice Ingram praised the young victim’s “courage and bravery in coming forward.”

Not much likelihood of that judicial attitude from “Justice” Carney…

It is very difficult to accept that a father could rape his daughter and the mother ignore this, but then our judicial system fails to administer justice even after the man admitted to possibly one of the worst crimes that a human being could commit.
He got a mock sentence and a telling off, that is what it amounts to. The Judge still is in a job and has a pension to look forward to.
Carney is a disgrace to humanity, this is not the first time that he has made a decision that would cause sane people to wonder.

Poor girl feel so sorry for her and that so called thing of a father been left out of jail discrace !!!!! He’s private parts should be cut off him in sences He want a bullet the bastard

I’m truly amazed by what gets thumbs down in these comments. As a nation we should be critical of what happens in our country. It’s not that we don’t love this country… It is our love for this country that we want to criticize and bring attention to how bad and backwards our systems are.

Alone, one individual can make a positive impact on our society and government. But with the combined weight of the people the noise that can be generated through discussion then action can move a nation.

It has been done before and it can be done again. Let us not cower behind injustice and stupidity. Let’s make a stand against it!

CRIME: Bulb of Garlic tax fraud
SENTENCE: 6 years
OUTCOME: financial retribution made. .V.
CRIME: Rape of a little girl for years
PUNISHMENT: freedom
OUTCOME: childhood lost and a life scarred.
A society is judged on how it treats its most vulnerable. How could anyone not see the horror of this case, let alone the Judge. If you have a rapist pleading guilty to10 years weekly/nightly rape and he doesn’t get sent to prison, what can Victims and Gardai do in the future. Shame on our legal system.

I can’t believe the amount of red thumbs people are getting here. We need to do something about our justice system or at least some of the judges.

Especially Mr Justice Paul Carney. The man who used the phrase “an opportunistic spot of rape”. The man who jailed a woman who’d taken an overdose the night before trial because she couldn’t bare facing her attackers in court. http://www.independent.ie/national-news/courts/gangrape-woman-arrested-during-trial-following-overdose-3017017.html

Regardless how you paint it! Regardless how you spin it! Regardless how you see it! Regardless how it embarass you! Regardless how it angers you! Regardless where we were! It boils down to this… We are a backwards country and we have a lot of work to do move us forward. So we are no longer the butt of jokes.

Free to drive and drink. Free to rape and walk. Free to openly steel from the people. Free to collect high salaries for political work that’s not as world impacting as other English speaking countries.

Pedophiles have always been harboured and protected in Ireland , things have not moved on much from the dark days of the industrial schools

cant believe all the dislikes on these comments showin support for the lady

A bullet in the head for both the father the abuser and the mother the enabler. Judge needs to grow a pair. And to Fiona I salute your bravery and you can now be the one to change the system to prevent this from ever happening again.

this sentence must be reviewed ,.now .and anyone who abuses and rapes a child over years .really should hang .but as we dont have this option ..life should mean life .`like say 50 yrs he wont see the light of day again .so SOB STORY he is sick .so what ,lock him up and give him the meds .

In my opinion, what this country needs is a good kick up the arse! Disgusting how easily people are getting away with this crap. The older I get, the more ashamed I am to be Irish..

https://www.facebook.com/events/512032985486163/ march in bray please attend & share!

Its disgraceful that a legal sentencing system would allow this man to not go to prison for what he did to his daughter.
However I think it’s a detriment to her own courage and the spirit of the Irish people that a march in protest of the sentence has been organised. Hopefully, the application the DPP will put before the courts will be successful to reexamine the sentence put on her father.

On the face of it there seem to be a great number of instances where the judges apply apparently inappropriate sentences. If we were living in a proper republic this wouldn’t be happening. All our governing institutions, financial institutions and courts seem to have totally lost the plot. The rest of the world looks on with amazement and amusement at the shenanigans here.

Coming from a legal point of view, regardless of the heinous crime that took place, there is very little guidance here for the judiciary. The judges are basically said that the maximum sentence is life, but are left to determine if the maximum sentence should apply.

I believe that there needs to be reform of the sentencing in Ireland. There needs to be a set guideline available to judges because if people allowed judges to make a decision based on their emotions and their own personal biases then we have another flawed legal system. Guidelines need to be established, but they also cannot be the be all and end all. Every case is different and that does need to be acknowledged.

I also am not a fan of the American system because it can be extreme in some instances. The sentences handed down of 100 years have been applied to people have a record of petty crimes, the three strike system it is better known as. I think the English system, which has life sentences which usually last 30 years would the better model to base any reform on.

The sentences are way to lenient regarding sexual assault, rape & incest in this country. Yesterday a man was sentenced to 8 months for slapping a woman unknown to him, on the bum on a beach. He claimed to be high at the time. Meanwhile a self-confessed serial incestuous, paedophile is let off scott free due to his self-induced smoking related illness. The message: It’s okay to rape and sodomise your daughter for over a decade because this centre right country is way too left when it comes to crime and the protection of women and children. Today on the 6-1 news proposed legislation which will limit criminals from holding PSV licences has put sex offenders in the same category as burglary, limiting the ban for 2 years max. Murderers and terrorists, however get lifetime bans. It has been proven the world over that recidivism is highest among sex offenders, yet this country refuses to acknowledge the gravity of these heinous crimes which affect women and children the most with emotional scars that never heal. Arguably the most vulnerable in society. We need benchmarks and mandatory sentences and the guarantee that rape victims are not gang raped in public by the judiciary. Shame, Shame Shame on them. They’re as bad as the serial abusers in the Church

Well if I can get a baby sitter I will show my support on Saturday and I will be contacting a TD when I find the right one , because there the ones who should being hearing from the public at how the sentencing in all cases involving sex crimes need an overall !
PS the red thumbs are easy to knock off when scrolling on phone ,people prob did it loads of times without realising it.

This is the sort of rally I’d go to.

However if people were really serious about cracking down on abuse, then not highlight the fact that Irish society is managed by the threat of violence? What do you think prisons are? Every position of authority is back by the threat of being but in a caged to potentially be raped. Then of course there is Catholic Church which the majority of people support.

How wonderful for Fiona that she was believed. How wonderful the world stands behind her. Let us raise our voices so the children of the world can hear us – let them hear us tell them the preciousness of children and childhood – let them grow with confidence in their hearts that they are good, It is the confident voices of our children, which, in the end, will bring the barbaric practice of childhood rape — all forms of sexual abuse — all forms of violence and abuse — to an end.

Here is a 13 minute documentary of my own healing journey. “I reach back now to every child on the planet suffering violence, and say, hang on, have faith, you too will overcome.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXUOfq9kg1I

Re*.:#AlITY bearings

what is reality to a child of nine
when even my own body isn’t mine
and everything inside me is feeling bad
and I don’t even know how to reason I am sad

what is reality to the lonely girl aged nine
who suddenly discovers there is such a thing as kind
even though the kind they speak about
lives somehow only in my mind
a man who came and touched my heart
and made me want to start to pray
for they said he hears all we say
and all we have to do is just believe
which is easy cos I realise I do
dear Jesus I know you are really true
please come for me and I will go with you
dear Jesus please please please please come
with you I wouldn’t have to run
please come dear Jesus I will take your hand
I know that you will understand and love me
already I feel very very happy
I will not have to change at all
you’ll love me just because I’m small
and I’ll love you forever
just come for me and please take me away
please

what is reality to a young girl nine years old
who’s learned that I must do as I am told
no matter what it is
don’t you dare to disobey
there is no grey
life is only black and white
make no mistake
“grown ups are always ALWAYS right”
and I believed
or at least I never questioned
not til 1993
when I watched my third born playing with her toys
and realised that I was watching me
and from that new perspective
I could finally see
the reality of being only nine
as I saw my daughter’s innocence there was mine

when did I start to think I was indecent
that it was my fault I was so slow
that I didn’t fight and didn’t shout “No!”
didn’t even try to raise myself up to my highest height
or see he just pretended to be nice to me
and was lying when he said that he was sorry
and that it wouldn’t happen again
and I forgave him
they said we should forgive and so I did
but I was just a kid
and when I found out that he lied
I found a way to hide away so well
that it’s taken forty years
to break the spell
and crack the shell I built around my core
where I’ve been stored
quite safely
whilst I waited for my grown up part to grow
and come and get me
and set us both free

An extract – Melody Ann Wood.

look part of the problem is the judges were all barristers who were all solicitors who all came out of the kings inn. in addition the fact that the judges are appointed politically lends itself to corruption as even when a politicians retires he has a man on the inside as it were. The whole lot of them all know each other and if you “hire” the right one it makes things go a lot simpler. The whole lot of them judges soliciters and barristers are so far up each others h…les the Irish legal system has become one big mutual appreciation society. this happened before cue the Anthony Lyons case and will happen again. if the state is that worried about saving cost’s a cheaper solution would be to castrate him and leave him in jail for a couple of months or so. assuming he does not do himself after that then attach ropes to his four limbs and have him pulled apart and left for dead. i hate to say this but if this was america he would be coming out of prison in a box, but then again at least over there they try top protect their citizens from dangerous elements. BTW where is the Irish council for civil liberality on this one they scream blue murder if prisoners rights are impeded what about the rights of a little girl to grow up without being attacked by a demonic pervert twice her size

If this gets put in jail the state will pay for his health care as he is in the care of the state .he will probably need 2 nurses round the clock ;and very intensive medical care .him not being in jail puts himself in charge of his own health care .is taking on this responsibility a good idea for the state