Irish Examiner view: Differing tariffs for crimes of violence
Natasha O'Brien was knocked unconscious by Cathal Crotty after she asked him to stop shouting homophobic abuse. Picture: Eamon Ward
For those who like to draw their lessons from popular culture it is worth noting an observation from Alexander Hamilton whose eponymous musical in his honour made its bow 10 years ago.
“The first duty of society” said Hamilton, “is justice.”
But, as we have seen in three notorious, and different, legal cases, a shared definition of the tariffs which can be applied to that principle is becoming increasingly difficult to achieve.
It is welcome news that a more fitting form of punishment caught up with 22-year-old Cathal Crotty, the former soldier who was initially given a suspended sentence last June for beating Natasha O'Brien unconscious on a Limerick street after she asked him to stop shouting homophobic abuse.
Crotty, from Ardnacrusha, Co Limerick, went on to boast about his exploits on the social media platform Snapchat: “Two to put her down, two to put her out.”
The judge in the original hearing, now retired, said that the offence should attract a headline punishment of four years in prison.
But he gave weight — too much weight — to Crotty’s guilty plea, good army service record, and lack of previous convictions in mitigating the sentence to three years, fully suspended.
After public and political uproar, the Court of Appeal agreed with the DPP that the original Circuit Court decision was unduly lenient.
That they did so quickly is all to the good.
The victim, Ms O’Brien, agrees that the courts have sent a "loud and clear" message on violence against women.
But what about violence in general?
In that arid news desert between Christmas and New Year, when the attentions of readers are frequently directed towards hearth, home, and family, the published a moving interview with the parents of a young and gentle man who was beaten and kicked, ultimately to death, in a quiet, well-lit, residential street 150m away from his family home in Carrigaline, Co Cork, on December 28, 2022.
Matt O’Neill, 29, was assaulted by two local males who were teenagers at the time, Ricardo Hoey, aged 21, of Ardcarrig, Carrigaline, and Jordan Deasy, aged 20, of nearby Ravensdale, Heron’s Wood.
They knocked him to the ground and kicked and punched him as he lay defenceless.
He died 11 days later in Cork University Hospital without regaining consciousness.
His attackers were acquitted of murder but found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to four years, leaving his father and mother, Pat and Eileen O’Neill, to question whether this is an appropriate jail term for a thug taking someone’s life violently.
The O’Neills will be seeking a meeting with Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan to push for changes to the law and place limits on the proportions of sentences which can be suspended for violent crime.
Eileen O’Neill cannot walk down her hometown street without recalling her only son, a trained lifesaver who rescued three people from the sea and then, in death, gave hope to three other men through the donation of his liver and both kidneys.
Those memories and sense of grievous loss are a whole life sentence for her.
And that brings us to the third case.
The slaughter of young Taylor Swift fans in Southport last summer by the malevolently evil Axel Rudakubana has many questions which need to be answered.
But we at least know why he could not be sentenced to life imprisonment.
Under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child whole life orders cannot be made against offenders under the age of 18, which the killer was by nine days when he slaughtered three small children and injured eight others and two adults in a mass stabbing.
We have travelled a long way from the Old Testament doctrine of “an eye for an eye.”
But if citizens begin to feel that the scales are fixed in favour of the transgressor this will become a threat to civil society, and for social peace.
While Ireland awaits this summer’s film Saipan — Roy Keane centre stage played by emerging Cork star Éanna Hardwicke — today marks the 30th anniversary of one of the most astonishing moments in Premier League soccer.
It was on January 25, 1995, that Eric Cantona — trudging off at Selhurst Park after being given a red card — launched a kung fu kick at Crystal Palace supporter Matthew Simmons.
Cantona says he, his nationality, and even his mother were being roundly abused.
Simmons told a court he had said “Off, off, off. It’s an early bath for you Mr Cantona.”
As a queen of England once said in different circumstances, recollections vary.
What resulted was mayhem which, although it ended in an eight-month ban for the enigmatic Frenchman and cost Manchester United a league title, secured the legend status for the fils préféré de Marseilles and kick-started an unfinished debate about the limits of banter.
Cantona was initially sentenced to two weeks in jail, which was reduced to 150 hours community service.
At his press conference, he delivered one of the most famous quotes in the history of the game: “When the seagulls follow the trawler, it is because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea.”
Cantona names the moment as the highlight of his career. “I have a lot of good moments, but the one I prefer is when I kicked the hooligan.”
Ireland has not succumbed to the epidemic of deadly opioid use, the consequences of which are so apparent in North America and Canada.
However, all the indications are that there is street appetite in the Republic for such product — particularly as part of polydrug use, where it can be mixed into a dangerous and/or lethal cocktail.
Last year, gardaí said they were fearful that traffickers would set up labs in Ireland to manufacture synthetic opioids.
Several alarms have been sounded about the evolving appearance of potentially fatal nitrazenes in our markets for illegal heroin.
This week, some of the costs of the drug OxyContin — which initiated the plague detailed so fully in TV dramas such as and , and eloquently described in Patrick Radden Keefe’s book — captured headlines when a bankrupt company, Purdue Pharma, and its owners — members of the billionaire Sackler family — agreed to pay $7.4bn (€7.1bn) to 15 US states.
Their attorneys general say the addiction epidemic that has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans was accelerated by the marketing and sales strategies of Purdue’s OxyContin painkiller.
This is the second attempt at a settlement after the Supreme Court blocked a $6bn deal last year, which would have sheltered Purdue’s owners from any further litigation and prevented lawsuits from plaintiffs who hadn’t joined the settlement.
Representatives of the families of the late Mortimer Sackler and Raymond Sackler deny any wrongdoing.
Thursday’s deal resolves not only state claims, but also thousands of potential individual lawsuits that could have gone forward against the Sacklers one by one.
Under its terms, funds will be dispersed over 15 years, and Purdue will continue to be barred from lobbying or marketing opioids.
This turns a page in an unsavoury chapter of the history of Big Pharma, where people in pain looked for relief from a chemical which addicted them and changed their behaviours — the prescription of which came from doctors who were incentivised by the drug’s suppliers.
It is a warning to us all to beware of the phrase “wonder drug”.
As one of the principal lawyers for the claimants said: “The Sackler family relentlessly pursued profit at the expense of vulnerable patients, and played a critical role in starting and fuelling the opioid epidemic.
“While no amount of money will ever fully repair the damage they caused, this massive influx of funds will bring resources to communities in need so that we can heal,” the lawyer added.
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