Billy Keogh has a dependent mother, seven employees and he's a good businessman - so it's two years for rape

Rapist a man of good character, says judge

If you're a good businessman, have employees and support your mother, you can now have all this taken into account if you're being sentenced for rape.

Businessman Billy Keogh raped a prostitute after she refused to take off his condom. According to the woman, he also claimed to be a member of the Garda (police) and threatened to throw her out the window of the Waterford Hotel in which he met her.

The Waterford businessman later offered her €30,000 compensation but she rejected it. The judge, Mr Justice White, noted that she had been threatened by phone the day she returned to Ireland to give evidence in the case.

Yet the judge went on to tell Keogh, “It is quite clear to me that you are a man of good character..."

He gave him a five year sentence but suspended the last three years, says, according to this report in The Examiner, he was impressed by how Keogh re-established himself after losing his business in 2004 and that he also had an elderly dependent mother and seven employees to support.

You may wonder what the hell these factors have to do with sentencing in a rape case and so do groups like Ruhama - which works with women in prostitution - and the Rape Crisis Network Ireland.

“Our judicial system needs to give the women the confidence to come forward and seek justice," said Ruhama in a very restrained response. "Rape, no matter where it happens or to whom, has a longstanding impact on the victim. Sentences need to reflect this and act as a clear deterrent.”

Some deterrent!

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Sex with minors: the mess we've made of the law

What a mess we've made of the issue of sex between adults and underage children. A 15-year-old boy is charged with statutory rape for having sex with a 14-year-old girl. A 27-year-old man who makes a 15-year-old babysitter pregnant gets away with two years in jail. We need to get this confused nonsense sorted out. At least the 15-year-old boy, now 17 years of age, is challenging the constitutionality of the law which allows him to be charged while giving immunity to the girl - all part of Michael McDowell's legacy to us as Minister for Justice in 2006.

And while we're getting that sorted out, let's remember we have been promised a constitutional referendum on the rights of children in general. It would suit politicians down to the ground to confine this to the issue of under-age sex and to ignore the myriad of other ways in which the system lets down kids. Campaigners on children's rights need to keep a close eye on that one.

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Lesbian couple with child a family, Irish High Court rules

Ireland's High Court has ruled that a lesbian couple living together in a long-term committed relationship with a child can be regarded as a de facto family enjoying rights under the European Convention on Human Rights, says this report in The Irish Times.

The ruling, I suspect, will have wider implications than are inherent in the case itself. For instance, how will it affect the position of same-sex couples, whether gay or lesbian, who have children, in relation to tax, social welfare and employment benefits? I expect this will be working its way through the system for the next few years

The court denied guardianship and access rights to the child's biological father who had donated sperm to the mother, says the Irish Times report.

Mr Justice Hedigan said there was nothing in Irish law to suggest that a family of two women and a child "has any lesser right to be recognised as a de facto family than a family composed of a man and a woman unmarried to each other".

He said the rights of a man who acted as a sperm donor were at least no greater than those of an unmarried father. In considering his application for guardianship the child's welfare was the paramount consideration, the Irish Times report says.

He believed there existed such personal ties between the couple and the child as to give rise to family rights under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights which do not conflict with Irish law.

For more details, see this report in The Irish Independent.

And here is the rest of it.

Capturing the Friedmans

If you want to get a sense of the devastation that an accusation of child abuse can bring to a family, watch the DVD of the documentary Capturing the Friedmans.

This apparently respectable, middle-class family was torn apart in the 1980s when the father, Arnold Friedman, was found to be importing child pornography magazines from The Netherlands.

Police then charged both him and his son Jesse with the abuse of children attending computer classes in their home.

The movie, released in 2003 and directed by Andrew Jarecki, leaves you, at the end, with a sense of confusion and with nowhere to go.

One the one hand, Arnold Friedman, who committed suicide in prison, was a paedophile. On the other hand, the police investigation was flawed in ways that would be unlikely to be tolerated today.

Jesse Friedman, who served 13 years in prison, continues to try to prove his innocence.

A remarkable documentary, all the more remarkable for its refusal to neatly tie up the answers for us.

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Court rules children's removal from State unlawful

Appeal in 'Mr G' case rejected

The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by a mother of twins against a High Court judgment that found their removal from the State and retention in Britain without the consent of their father was unlawful.

In the "Mr G" case, the father brought a successful action against the mother, who took them to England in January.

Link:

ireland.com - Breaking News - Court rules children's removal from State unlawful

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Family law system 'shambolic' - report

A report published today has described the Irish family law system as shambolic and overcrowded. Dr Carol Coulter's report also said it was remarkable that the system worked at all.

RTÉ News: Family law system 'shambolic' - report

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Irish family courts not biassed against Dads, report suggests

This is the text of my That's Men for You column in The Irish Times on Tuesday 23rd October:

We hear allegations that the family courts are so biassed towards men that separated and unmarried fathers have no chance of getting justice. That the media are not allowed to cover these cases, even under conditions of strict anonymity, adds fuel to the fire.

That’s a pity: the latest report by Dr Carol Coulter on behalf of the Courts Service paints a picture of judges who, faced with deep parental conflicts, do their best to ensure that fathers and mothers have access to their children. One might argue about the amount of access in individual cases but the idea of a blanket prejudice against fathers is not borne out by Dr Coulter’s report. Here are some examples:

– A mother whose separated husband cut her maintenance from €1,000 to €750 a month because she had reduced her hours of work asked Judge Murrough Connellan to increase the payment to €1,300. She said she had reduced her working hours because one son had behavioural problems. The judge said the point of maintenance was to keep the “parties in the manner to which they had become accustomed” and he told the father to pay €1,000 a month. He also granted an access order for the father to see his sons in the middle of the week and not just at weekends as had previously been the arrangement. The mother had said she considered access to be very important.

– Judge Bridget Reilly granted an hour’s access a week to an unmarried father who had never seen his 10-month-old daughter and who had been jailed for assaulting the mother’s parents. The man had also sought joint guardianship. Judge Reilly told him that though it was a very good idea for a father to be a guardian, as an unmarried father he had no right under the Constitution. The access would take place at the home of the mother’s brother. She also made a maintenance order under which the father would pay €100 a week and she told all parties to return to court so she could check how the arrangement was working.

– A father went to court because he believed his access to his children was being frustrated. This, he said, included at least one occasion on which he was denied access to his children at his sister-in-law’s house even though he was there in accordance with an access order. The mother told the court that the boys did not want to be with their father. Judge Murrough Connellan said neither was a bad parent “but together you have got into a destructive pattern, quarrelling, and this is making it very difficult for your children to grow up.” He recommended they attend mediation and put their own egos aside for the good of the children. He would not change the existing access order and expected the parents to work out together how to manage it.

– Judge Gerard Haughton was critical of a mother for making unsubstantiated allegation in court. This arose when an unmarried father sought joint guardianship of two boys. He said he wanted to be appointed guardian in case anything ever happened to the mother. The mother’s solicitor said the father provided no maintenance as he was on long-term disability. However, the judge dismissed this point as irrelevant. Given that the man was on long-term disability his failure to pay maintenance could not be held against him. Social welfare was “subsistence…you can’t criticise for non-payment out of subsistence.” The mother said one of the boys had been caught selling stolen items he had got from the father and that the school had told her the father “brainwashes” the boy. Judge Haughton said it was “grossly unfair” to raise matters for which no evidence had been produced in court. He granted joint guardianship, saying all he had heard from the mother “is suggestion and innuendo.”

There is much, much more than this in Dr Coulter’s report in her excellent and informative Family Law Matters. The series can be downloaded from the www.courts.ie which is the website of the Courts Service.

Transsexual wins landmark case after epic 10-year battle

THE Government is legally obliged to revise the law on the rights of those who have changed sexes following a landmark decision in the High Court yesterday .

Transsexual wins landmark case after epic 10-year battle - National News, Frontpage - Independent.ie

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Woman guilty of false rape, assault claims against father

A woman has been convicted of falsely claiming she had been raped and sexually abused by her father.

Woman guilty of false rape, assault claims against father - National News, Frontpage - Independent.ie

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Quiklink: Half of all family law cases relate to domestic violence

Domestic violence generates almost half of all the family law applications that are made in the District Court, new figures show. Link below:

ireland.com - The Irish Times - Tue, Oct 16, 2007 - Half of all family law cases relate to domestic violence

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Supreme Court appeal on High Court ruling on fathers' rights

The High Court ruling in favour of an unmarried father whose twins were removed to the UK without his consent is to be appealed to the Supreme Court, according to this story in the Irish Independent. While this development may disappoint - though hardly surprise - supporters of this and other fathers, the Supreme Court will provide a definitive clarification assuming one or the other party doesn't go to the European Court. And on the basis that the High Court doesn't engage in wild fantasies, the chances have to be in favour of victory there too.
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Irish High Court expands unmarried fathers' rights

On 11th September, the High Court in Dublin ruled in favour of an umarried father, Mr G, who had argued that his right had been breached by the removal to England, without his consent, of his twin children (see Irish case may force ruling on unmarried fathers' rights). The ruling seems to foreshadow the expansion of the rights of unmarried and separated fathers - so long as legislators are prepared to translate the ruling into legislation. The following is the text of my article on the topic, published in The Evening Herald on 12th September:

The ruling in the Mr G case, in which the High Court found that the removal of his twin boys to England without his consent was a breach of the European Convention on Human Rights is a major boost for the rights of unmarried fathers and their children.

It also creates a situation in which fathers and mothers will look to the Oireachtas to clarify these rights and to lay them down as clearly as possible in law.

Unfortunately, the record of the Oireachtas in relation to difficult social issues makes it hard to believe that it will actually move on this issue. For many decades now, thorny decisions in this whole area have been left to the courts to the detriment of those who cannot afford to take the legal route.

Yet the involvement of lone fathers – I am using the word ‘lone’ here to refer to any fathers, married or unmarried, who are living apart from their children – has been shown time and again to benefit the children throughout their lives.

The grim days when the unmarried mother was shunned and her child put up for adoption whether she liked it or not are, thankfully, over. This attitude was at its height in the Sixties – for some girls in those grainy, black and white clips of people dancing to showbands, the party ended with a year in a mother and baby home and the removal of the baby to the United States.

Since then, society has changed enormously. Today approximately one third of births are outside marriage.

It is normal for parliaments to lag behind changes in society – very often these changes are not visible until after they happen.

Yet in 1994, the European Court of Human Rights signalled that marriage was not the only basis for family rights. In 1996, which is reasonably quickly as these things go, the Constitution Review Group recommended that the rights of all fathers in relation to their children be acknowledged so long as there was a stable relationship.

The Constitution Review Group may as well have spent the day at the races for all the notice Government took of this recommendation. But the report should be taken out of whatever dust-laded shelf it occupies and looked at by lawmakers at the highest level.

The fact is that everybody has an interest in this case. I would suggest that the vast majority of lone mothers promote contact between their children and the fathers of these childen. However, there will always be the minority who will allow their own feelings about the father to get in the way of that contact. Similarly there will always be a minority of fathers who will fail to honour their children’s need to be involved with them.

This judgement means that the onus is on the Oireachtas to provide for the rights of that majority of lone fathers who want to be involved with their children. And research by Barnardos and others has shown that children will do better at school and in their adult relationships if there is such involvement.

At the same time, mothers have a right to be worried about the prospect of a biological father who couldn't care less about his children coming in later and throwing his weight around.

But both the High Court and the Constitution Review Group have suggested strongly that it is the unmarried father who is genuinely involved with his children who has rights that cannot be taken away.

We need the Oireachtas now to step up to the plate and clarify these rights. Fathers and mothers need clarity on this issue.

But most of all clarity, and contact from fathers who care about them, is needed by the really important parties in this debate - the children.....

We will never escape from this says retired teacher whose husband downloaded child pornography

When a retired teacher's husband was found by the police to have downloaded child pornography, the consequences were immediate and devastating, according to this extraordinary article in the Observer. Both were arrested (she was innocent, he later admitted his guilt) and that very day she had to agree to resign all her part-time teaching jobs. Their adult children had to agree not to let the couple be alone with their grandchildren again.

Two years later his trial has still not occurred. She fears what will happen when his activities become known through the trial publicity - stones through the window, being shunned in the shops, having to move.

They have been receiving emotional help from the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, a charity which aims to protect children by working with people who have engaged in child abuse or are in danger of doing so. The Foundation also runs the Stop It Now! UK & Ireland campaign for the same purpose. The campaign is based on the Stop It Now! campaign in the United States.

But read that Observer article. It's unforgettable.....

Accused fathers - but not strangers - face gender bias from men and women, study suggests

People are more likely to judge a father guilty than a mother in child sex abuse cases, research reported in this story from the British Psychological Society’s Research Digest suggests. However, the same gender bias wasn't found to apply when the suspect was a stranger to the alleged victim.

In the study by Monica McCoy of Converse College and Jennifer Gray of the University of Wyoming, 256 adults read a 6-page fictional account of a court case involving the alleged serious sexual assault of a ten-year-old girl. All participants read an identical account but for one exception, the BPS report says – the suspect was described as either the alleged victim's father, mother, a female stranger or a male stranger.

Both male and female participants were significantly more likely to find a father guilty than a mother (47 per cent of fathers vs. 24 per cent of mothers were judged guilty), but this gender bias didn't extend to suspects who were unrelated to the victim. Overall, the female participants were no more likely to return a guilty verdict than the male participants, but they did tend to rate the victim as more believable and the defendant as less believable.

Forty per cent of Northen Ireland suicides are younger men, says report

More than 40 per cent of those who took their own lives in Northern Ireland between 2000 and 2004 were men under 35 years of age, according to a report from the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety (press release here; full report here in pdf format).

Main findings:

• People in Northern Ireland report higher happiness levels than in many parts of Europe and further afield, yet this sits alongside high levels of unhappiness and psychological distress.
• Conflict related trauma can have long term physical and mental consequences, and suicide rates have been associated with immediate and longer term consequences of conflict.
• Research shows that people who live in an area heavily affected by violence tend to have very high rates of depression.
• The troubles affected the way suicide was reported and recorded, and limited public recognition of suicide and self-harming as serious public issues.
• During the transition to peace, people are more willing to report depression etc.

The suicide rate for men aged 25-34 in Northern Ireland doubled between 1995 and 2000. For those aged 15-24, it rose by 35 per cent and for those aged 55-64 by 70 per cent. For the 75+ age group the rate actually fell by 75 per cent.

For women the suicide rate more than trebled for the 25-34 year old group but fell for those aged 55 and over.

The number of suicides resulting directly from the interrogation and
punishment practices of loyalist and republican armed groups has not
been established, it says.....

Irish case may force ruling on unmarried fathers' rights

An unmarried father is to take a case to the High Court in an attempt to have his two-year-old twin sons returned to him in Ireland from England, says this story by Ronan McGreevy in today's Irish Times. They were taken by their mother to Manchester from the couple's home in January.

A leading family law expert said last night that the case had the potential to be "hugely significant" in forcing the Irish courts to make a ruling on the rights of unmarried fathers.

When the father took a case to a court in England seeking the return of the children, Mrs Justice Mary Hogg said it was not appropriate for her to make a ruling on returning the children to Ireland.

The custody of the children was a matter for the Irish courts, she said.

The man, know as Mr G, with the support of the Unmarried Fathers of Ireland group, is now seeking an urgent High Court hearing in Ireland to determine if he has the right to custody of the children. He said he would take the case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg if that right was not vindicated in the High Court.

Unmarried Fathers of Ireland spokesman Donnacha Murphy said they would look for a High Court date by the end of this week and the case had the potential to become a landmark judgment. "The facts of this case would appear to constitute an ideal case for the consideration of discrimination within Irish family law legislation," he said.

UK family courts not like Guantánamo says magistrate

Family law courts in Ireland and Britain are often accused of treating fathers unjustly. Because their proceedings are not open to the media, the validity of these accusations is hard to assess. In a letter in today`s Guardian, a magistrate, Tim Ottevanger, defends the family court system against charges from Trevor Jones of Parents Against Injustice, in a previous letter. Jones had claimed that these courts comprised a `secret court system more reminiscent of Guantánamo Bay than Britain`. Jones was commenting on an announcement by the then justice secretary, Lord Falconer, that plans to open the family law courts to the media were being dropped partly because children were overwhelmingly against the idea.

`Magistrates in the family court system frequently agonise over the decisions they make, knowing the implications of their orders for the future welfare of the children,` writes Ottevanger. `Magistrates, as well as judges, have to base their decisions on the evidence before them. They do not claim infallibility, hence the need for a robust appeals system. Likening the system they operate within to a prison camp of questionable legality is cheap and insulting.`

Here in Ireland there is also questioning of the operation of the courts in relation, especially, to access to children following separation or divorce. To bring about some small degree of openness, the Courts Service has appointed Dr Carol Coulter (on leave of absence from The Irish Times) to produce research on what happens in family cases. Her first report showed a high level of agreement between separating parents on issues such as access to children. Fathers` advocates claim men are coerced into these agreements by the expectation that they will get a raw deal in court.

My own feeling is that Carol Coulter is nobody`s fool, has a strong sense of justice and is highly unlikely to be party to a whitewash of the family courts system (she has publicly stated that judges in family law cases rarely consider the input of children) - so I am inclined to take an optimistic view of her findings.

The argument can only be settled, and justice advanced, by allowing the media to report these cases on condition that the parties` anonymity is respected as has been the case for years in the Children`s Court.....