People queued to shake this sex attacker’s hand

IT was a scene that could have come from a John B Keane play – a bizarre gesture of support by some plain people of Kerry for a convicted sex offender.

Danny Foley, of Meen, Listowel, sat in the dock at the Circuit Criminal Court, in Tralee, yesterday, awaiting sentence for sexually assaulting a woman, having been found guilty by a jury almost two weeks ago.

A group of 50 people, mainly men and said to be neighbours and friends, trooped into the courtroom and marched up to the accused, in single file. Each man shook his hand – some hugged him warmly, with tears in their eyes. It was witnessed by the 24-year-old victim who cut a lonely figure in the front seat of the public gallery. Dressed in black, she sat with a female garda, a counsellor from the Kerry Rape Crisis Centre and a friend.