Let’s not rush to judgement on Carney

THROUGHOUT the week, two broad schools of opinion formed much of the debate on the sentencing of rapist Patrick O’Brien.

One concerned the lack of natural justice in such a criminal walking free after his conviction in the Central Criminal Court. The other opinion proffered in the media came largely from lawyers and legal academics, who attempted to frame the case within the strictures of the law.

The former cast the presiding judge, Paul Carney, as somebody who handed down his sentence with scant regard for O’Brien’s victim, his daughter Fiona Doyle. The latter attempted to demonstrate how the judge was merely discharging his constitutional function. There is, however, another lens through which the sorry tale can be viewed.