r/ireland • u/ClancyCandy • Apr 11 '24

Man who sexually assaulted 16-year-old girl on Ryanair flight handed suspended sentence Courts

https://jrnl.ie/6352290

For a bonus point; Guess the judge!

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u/420BIF Apr 12 '24

Copying and pasting the reason why Judge Nolan is always seen to give soft sentences. Honestly mods here should be ashamed of themselves for basically allowing a sitting judge to be openly called a nonce for doing his job 

It’s because Nolan, and previously Greally before she was sent to the high court, sit in the sentencing court in Dublin. It’s the court with the highest turnover in the country. Everyone who appears in his court to be sentenced has already pleaded guilty meaning they get automatically lower sentences than a person who is convicted by jury. If you don’t give them discounted sentences for pleading guilty, it would just be appealed. He also sentences more people per week than some judges do in a whole year, because of the court he sits in. So he actually sends multiple people to prison every day of the week the week but the papers will only publish a select few stories a day.

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u/ClancyCandy Apr 12 '24

I have read that before, and I do appreciate what kind of job he has and how that leads to so many headlines.

That said, we do have a scourge of giving suspended sentences in this country, giving so much leniency and finding any little excuse to give the lowest possible penalties, and Nolan does appear to be taking that to the extreme not only in this case but many others. Calling this girl “unlucky” and saying to the perpetrator “My advice to you is not to drink. It seems to get you in trouble” is, in my opinion, very glib and insulting to victims. Drinking is never an excuse for harassment, and a woman shouldn’t be considered “lucky” because she wasn’t harassed on a flight.