Women’s Aid’ inundated’ with calls after soldier sentence

A domestic abuse charity has said it has been “absolutely inundated” with calls from people distressed at the suspended sentence given to a serving soldier who beat a woman unconscious in Limerick two years ago.

Cathal Crotty, 22, of Parkroe Heights, Ardnacrusha, Co Clare, had initially tried to blame the victim, 24-year-old Natasha O’Brien, by wrongly telling gardaí who arrested him that she had instigated the attack on O’Connell Street in Limerick on 29 May 2022.

Natasha O’Brien said it was “not justice” after Crotty walked free from court after being given a fully suspended sentence.

Women’s Aid CEO Sara Benson said the case was “very triggering” and she said it has also left people angry and very frustrated.

Crotty’s suspended sentence came as Women’s Aid launched its impact report from 2023 disclosing that the charity had more than 40,000 disclosures of domestic abuse in one year alone.

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“And at the same time, then we see this act of very public violence brutal violence against a woman in broad daylight or in the evening time, and it really does leave us questioning just how seriously we are taking the issue of violence against women and our commitment to zero tolerance,” Ms Benson said.

She said her organisation is “paying close attention to what the victim in this case has said and the impact of this on her life over two years”.

“From the act to the conviction yesterday. She has lost her job. She has suffered very serious, both physical and mental health consequences and we think that it’s really important to look at the proportionality of these situations, you know, the proportionality of the crime and the impact on the victim in this situation,” Ms Benson said.

Asked about comments from a commandant officer who attended the sentencing hearing, which the Defence Forces say is in line with their regulations, she said: “I think the issue of character witnesses is something that is under a lot of scrutiny in many cases, particularly those relating to violence against women.

“I don’t think it follows to connect the words polite and exemplary with hard evidence of somebody perpetrating an act of exceptional violence, completely unprovoked in a public place. Those two things don’t reconcile.”

She added she welcomed comments from the Minister for Justice Helen McEntee about a commitment to follow through with legislation where those who give character witnesses may be cross-examined in criminal trials.

The Defence Forces has begun internal proceedings following Crotty’s sentencing.

Former Defence Forces captain and Senator Tom Clonan said Defence Forces officers are “witnesses for the State, they are not witnesses to fact when soldiers are tried for criminal offences,” in civilian courts.

Speaking on RTÉ’s News at One, he said that as a company or battery commander, when he was in that role he, “would have attended trials of soldiers who were charged with serious assault”.

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Senator Clonan said the use of the word “exemplary” that was read into the court record as part of the soldier’s service record emanated from a “series of categories of your performance appraisal”.

He said his 20-year-old daughter has regular conversations with her friends about their arrangements for “sticking together and looking after each other” when they go out and he said that gender-based violence is a “serious issue”.

Senator Clonan said next week he intends to seek clarification from Minister for Defence Micheál Martin and from the military authorities “precisely what was the context within which these words were used” in court, which he said he was not “100% clear about”.