Sir, – To the sceptic who wonders, either cynically or sincerely, why it so often takes so many women so long to report sexual abuse, and why so many never do, the abominably lenient sentence for Tom Humphries is their answer. Our courts are society’s and the individual’s last line of defence against cunning, sickening, sexual predators, yet again and again they are unwilling to defend robustly and categorically the most vulnerable in their time of greatest need, to ensure justice is served and be seen to be served. – Yours, etc,
PATRICIA MULKEEN,
Ballinfull,
Sligo.
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Sir, – Tom Humphries has been given very light sentences on sex charges when he could have faced a far greater sanction and deserved it. The sentencing hearing centred around the culprit, not the victim, in typical Irish fashion.
Letters of support, references, loss of reputation, his guilty plea, no previous convictions, and mental health issues were all brought to bear in order to mitigate enormous wrongdoing by a person who could only know that what he was doing was wrong.
In addition, the court backdated the sentences to the time he was first taken into custody to mitigate it further. The sentence was so light that he may be out in as little as a year to two for defilement of a child and sexual perversion of a minor.
He deserves no pity whatsoever given his very privileged existence as a central and influencing figure in his profession. – Yours, etc,
MAURICE FITZGERALD,
Shanbally,
Co Cork.