Monday, April 21, 2008

A question of Integrity.

Integrity: the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles: moral uprightness. : he is know to be a man of great integrity.

Rapist- man who commits rape.

What in the name of good judgement made Labour TD Kathleen Lynch and former Lord Mayor of Cork, John Murray write letters of support for convicted rapist Trevor Casey .
I see this morning Kathleen Lynch has apologised for her letter, claiming she did not personally know Casey, but that when his mother approached her asking her for the letter, she felt obliged to provide it.
If she did not know the man in question she had no right supporting him in a case of rape and sexual assault of two minors. For that matter his mother ought to be hanging her head in same too.
What Trevor Casey did was abhorrent. He raped and sexually assaulted two young girls, threatened them and then put them through the additional horror of a court case. People of influence have no business discussing his 'stock' or pleading to the courts for leniency.
I'm glad Lynch apologised for her actions. She has proven at least she understands the word integrity. I wonder will John Murray do the same.

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20 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Didn't this happen also with some junior minister down in Clare?

In fairness to TDs senators and councillors, they are probably asked to write letters on behalf of constituents they don't even know every day. What's needed is a move away from these Parish Pump politics, justice should be left to the courts, planning to the planners, housing to housing and so forth. Certainly politicians should not write letters on behalf of people they do not know and subjects they are not familiar with, by the same token, Joe Public should not be going to the local politician looking for a shortcut

10:29 a.m.  
Blogger JL Pagano said...

I agree with you totally re: Kathleen Lynch, but I must offer this one point of information - not all rapists are men. Most, definitely, but not all.

10:52 a.m.  
Blogger Unknown said...

Yup, clientelism is the dodgey end of Irish politics. Writing letters to secure someone their entitlements (or, as in this case, something they're not entitled to) is a heap of horse poo. And why do TDs do it? Because they think the others in the constituency will do it and they'll get the vote next time around.

off topic... I met a French Bulldog in the flesh over the weekend. A snortly/snootly/wheezely brindle bundle called Buster, out for a walk with a pal of the owner. Could take a pic. Sorry.

12:09 p.m.  
Blogger Unknown said...

Er, that should read couldn't...

12:10 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Politician.
Integrity.

They usually don't go together do they?

Perhaps if we swapped "self-serving egotist" for "politician" in every spoken or written instance we'd at least be helping to manage expectations.

12:20 p.m.  
Blogger fatmammycat said...

Anonymous, exactly.

True JL, I was using the dictionary example.

Conan! Was he adorable? Buster, oooh, I'll bet he was a dote.

BBB, there is definitely ego involved. I see John Gormley is on the case, looking to draw up guidelines to prevent this from happening in the future.

12:28 p.m.  
Blogger fatmammycat said...

I also wonder how many other TD's have stuck their noses into court cases.

12:49 p.m.  
Blogger Unknown said...

He had a jerky short wheelbase type of walk, and a good-humoured disposition.

12:58 p.m.  
Blogger fatmammycat said...

Sounds about right. I met plenty of them in BCN and only one here, but they've always struck me as charming friendly easy going little chaps. Sigh, I do love them so. Although this morning having spent time opening and closing doors, cleaning up cat sick and a torn up bin bag I'm harbouring ill will towards pets.

1:21 p.m.  
Blogger Unknown said...

I trust the inamorato was fully checked out for French Bulldog friendliness? Perhaps he'll come one with one in his pocket, one of these days?

1:33 p.m.  
Blogger fatmammycat said...

Perhaps, he is of the opinion that dogs require a certain amount of commitment that cats don't.
Normally I would agree with this line of thinking. But then I remember I own the Bigger of the Cats, who requires more bloody fussing over than a six week old baby. It's only quiet now because I have locked him in the hot press-where doubtless he is merrily shedding on the cleans towels. That however is preferable to him sitting on my keyboard, sharpening his nails on the corner of my seat, or wailing at me through my office window.

1:43 p.m.  
Blogger Megan McGurk said...

Thanks for this, FMC.
I read it with disgust.
I also see that it didn't take long for someone to issue a corrective and put words in your mouth.
Le sigh.

I will confess that if I were not allergic to the kittehs we would have gotten two instead of the pups.

2:47 p.m.  
Blogger fatmammycat said...

It's pretty bad all right Medbh, and the fact that he has shown absolutely no remorse makes him a particularly vile piece of garbage. really, at the end of the day what the fuck matter is it to anyone what kind of folk a person's parents are anyway. THEY didn't do the crime. As the first commentator summed up beautifully, it's parish pump politics.

And I was listening a bit more to John Gormley and his suggestion that there ought to be guidelines in place for TDs in this sort of situation. Well DUH, the guideline should be let the courts deal with matters of criminality and let TD's keep their beaks out of it.

3:21 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

""He comes from good stock and is of good stock".

That kind of thinking needs to be stamped out with jackboots.

For a start it suggests rape is some lower class scourge - patently not true.

It reduces us all to the animalistic - good stock, my bum. What are we? Holsteins? Insatiable jackals without the use of a higher human mind to distinguish right from wrong?

It makes the person who said it look like a 19th century eugenicist.

I can't believe anybody still talks like that in this day and age.

3:21 p.m.  
Blogger fatmammycat said...

It IS ridiculous but very prevalent here in Ireland. The thing that bothers me is how many more letter to judges there are from 'concerned parties' of people with a bit of welly. We only know about this case because the judge mentioned it.
Good stock, that makes it worse in my view. At least in SOME crimes you can take a person's upbringing and life into account.
This man abused two girls in a heinous way, what his genes have to do with it is beyond me.

3:54 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Just in relation to the comment about whether or not any other TD's had done something like this; Bobby Molloy had to resign as a result of a member of his office contacting the judge ruling in a case where a father sexually abused his daughter for years and years in Connemara. As you stated FMC, TD's should keep their beaks out of it. Regardless of who they come from, those who prey on the vulnerable, be it family or in this case, the younger sisters of an ex, should be held accountable for their actions, without the 'good standing' of their family being used to lessen their punishment.

4:14 p.m.  
Blogger fatmammycat said...

That's right, the Patrick Naughton case. I had to google it, but as soon as I read it I remembered the case. Disgraceful and a real abuse of his office.

5:34 p.m.  
Blogger shoegrl said...

Absolutely sickening....

I read that Lynch said that the sick rapist's mother had approached her and that she would have been a "coward" not to write the letter of recommendation.

WRONG!

What Lynch did was the cowardly option. The brave - and ethical - option would have been to refuse and to risk losing, what, a couple of votes (?). Hopefully at the next opportunity her constituency should have the sense to kick her to the kerb. Kathleen Lynch is as much of a scumbag as the rapist she defends.

On a similar note, if this animal is from "good stock" surely then, there should be a higher duty expected from him. Surely if his family are of such "good stock" then they wouldnt have reared a rapist? I think the fact that the mother took on the "victim" mentality and went looking for an easy way out, as opposed to accepting that her son should accept responsibility for his disgusting actions, says a lot about his "stock".

10:53 a.m.  
Blogger GavinZac said...

Thanks for your comments. If you're interested, I've posted the full text of my initial letter to Deputy Lynch when we first heard from the courts that she had gotten involved.

http://www.procrasticfantastic.com/the-td-and-the-paedophile/

2:34 p.m.  
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