JUST OVER A year ago, Daniel Ramamoorthy, a one-time government advisor, was convicted of sexually exploiting a 13-year-old boy at a Christian children’s camp. Although a first conviction, he was sentenced to two years and four months in prison.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court also heard Ramamoorthy was found with three images and one video depicting young boys engaged in sexual activity with each other and with an unknown adult man.
Ramamoorthy appealed the severity of his prison sentence. That appeal was rejected. But it was during that hearing at the Court of Appeal that Mr Justice John Edwards noted that not one of those who had given ‘character’ references for the defendant had mentioned the crimes of which the defendant had been convicted, or the age of the child.
One of those character references was given by former Fianna Fáil TD Jim Glennon. In acknowledging that he had given a reference, Glennon apologised to the victim and their family for any additional pain and distress he may have caused.
At this late stage, Glennon reflected that he had failed to give proper weight to the gravity of the crimes. In this case, the defendant had been in a position of trust and authority with the 13-year-old child victim, had exploited that child, was tried for it and was convicted. He also pleaded guilty to having child sexual abuse material before the trial.
In his statement on Sunday, Mr Glennon used a word that Judge John Edwards had also used for those crimes: vile.
That is what this crime is – vile. A frightened 13-year-old, spending sleepless nights worried about how bad things would be if the engagement continued.
Child safety must come first
Working now with the Children’s Rights Alliance to counter the absolute explosion of child sexual abuse online, and in my previous work with Dublin Rape Crisis Centre for victims of all ages of sexual exploitation and abuse, I am regularly reminded of the impact of sexual abuse and exploitation on children, the harm it causes, the way it can and often does skew a child’s development and the impact on a child, which may be life-long.
That damage can be further exacerbated by the legal process. Any child who is abused or exploited in this way then has to try to process and name the harm, explain it to trusted adults, repeat that testimony perhaps many times to law enforcement and prosecution authorities and then, maybe years later, continue to remember it in detail by going to court and telling it all over again.
While Irish courts are now introducing welcome innovations in prioritising some children’s cases, these are not widespread yet. It is not unusual for a child to have to wait for years. A substantial part of their lives.
Because sexual offences are an egregious assault on personal integrity and dignity, Irish law now requires character references in sexual offence cases to be on affidavit or given under oath in court. This is to impress on those giving the reference the importance of being able to stand over everything they say.
Clearly, this is not enough.
The next step must surely be to insist that each referee clearly acknowledges that they understand the offence and the profound impact that the crime might have had on the victim.
Illogical character witnesses
However, even that does not deal with the illogical nature of character witnesses. Other information that a person might offer to soften their sentence tends to be factual. So, if a perpetrator didn’t put a victim through a trial but pleaded guilty, that can be to their advantage in court. It’s a fact.
So too is whether the person is a first-time offender or habitual. And so too is the possibility that the person was too young to understand what they were doing, or that they have a firm job offer which would be lost if they were imprisoned. All of those are facts.
Character references are different. They are offered by people who are seen to be upstanding in the community and speak about the respectability and good reputation of the defendant in the community. They are a feature of a legal system that values respectability and standing in the community far too much.
They are purely subjective. And they have the effect of tending to shame a victim who has gone through the whole, cruel legal system in order to be heard and believed, by telling them that it is the convicted defendant, finally found guilty of grievous crimes against that victim, who is the one supported by society.
It is time that character references about respectability and standing in society were abolished. They have no place in a legal system that abhors child sexual abuse and exploitation.
Noeline Blackwell is the Online Safety Coordinator of the Children’s Rights Alliance. She is also a former CEO of Dublin Rape Crisis Centre.