Judge stuns court with criticism of battered wife

AN outspoken judge silenced a courtroom once more by telling domestic violence victims they are asking to be abused again.

Judge John Neilan stunned Longford District Court by declaring that women who tried to back out of complaints made after assaults could find themselves “at the bottom of the stairs” or stabbing their partners in self-defence.

“You do no service to the female section of the community,” he told a woman who asked to withdraw a lengthy statement detailing how her husband had beaten her up. “You are only encouraging people to assault you by what you have done here today.”