THE urge to punish, to avenge, to seek retribution against a man who has done wrong and sexually assaulted a woman or women is now so strong that it is hardly ever challenged. It is perceived to be a virtue, particularly when the assailant is a figure in authority; and the jaws of that virtuous vengefulness have made off with the liberty and the dignity and the self-respect of Garda David Keirns who nearly two weeks ago was sentenced to three years' imprisonment for a number of offences against women.
Neither the women of Ireland, the rule of law, the general interests of society at large or the specific interests of the Garda Siochana are in any way advanced by the imprisonment of this poor unfortunate man. Indeed, I am astonished that he has been imprisoned at all, for by any civilised standards
David is an innocent man and a victim.
If ever there were a case in which the grounds for mitigation should be heard before the evidence of prosecution, it is David's.
Unspeakable ordeal
From the age of nine onwards, he was raped nightly by an adult cousin. That is such an unspeakable and terrible ordeal that the first proper response of any decent person should be to congratulate the victim on having managed any sort of adult life at all. For nine is the bewitching age, when a child is old enough to be independent, to be a clear and identifiable person, yet still dependent enough to need support and encouragement and love through the day and night.
This was the age at which David was being raped, Monday to Friday. His childhood - and indeed one can fairly now say, his adulthood too was stolen from him. The little boy who should have been just a little boy, playing football and scuffing his knees and hunting tadpoles, was in fact being grossly and repeatedly violated by a family member.
David revealed what had happened to him only 10 years ago, when, after drinking heavily, he experienced a strange and terrifying mood change and ran amok in his aunt's house, wandering around looking for some individual. We might guess who that individual was.
A year ago this week, David met an American policeman on holiday in Ireland. They got drunk together, and David was invited back to the visitor's flat in Dalkey. The American was so drunk that David had to help his wife put him to bed. Perhaps it was this deed, the adult male and the bed, which triggered a reversion to the type of behaviour David had exhibited at his aunt's in 1987. He began to wander around the flat, opening drawers and searching through wardrobes, repeating "Where is he?"
Upstairs, two American women students were sleeping. He went to their room and pulled the duvet off one of them. She pulled it back over her. He went downstairs then, where he broke a vase and told the policeman's wife he was going to kill her, smashing a water-heater on the wall and cutting his hand.
He went back upstairs and tore the upper garment off one of the girls, smearing blood over her back. He failed to get her bottom garment off, and the girl ran next door for help. David then struggled with the two remaining women, one of whom fell and cut herself, before they were both able to escape.
A dozen gardai
Two gardai arrived but were unable to control David. In the end it required a dozen gardai to restrain him. And then it transpired that David did not even know where he was he was under the impression that he was in the house of a family friend.
At his trial, Dr Brian McCaffrey told the court that David had been severely traumatised by the abuse which occurred when he was nine. His reaction on that June night a year ago was common enough to certain stimuli and certain reminders. He did not suffer from a craving for alcohol, but his binge-drinking was a direct result of his suppression of the abuse.
Now no doubt justice has to be seen to be done, and we probably do not want American women going back home reporting that Irish policemen can go around beating up women and tearing their clothes without punishment. Very possibly the case took the shape that it did simply because of this factor - that our political mood is such that no male who assaults a woman, especially an American woman, can walk free from a court. Had he assaulted a male as he clearly did assault several gardai - it might well have been that no charges would have been brought.
Pleaded guilty
David was charged with and pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a female student and was imprisoned for two years. The damage he did to the flat netted him three years. Common assault charges on the two other women earned him six months. Judge Cyril Kelly directed that the sentences be suspended from March 11th next, depending on reports from the prison authorities.
We are not a better or wiser or richer society for imprisoning David Keirns. We are the poorer by far. We are the poorer by far that his photograph should have been splashed over so many newspapers, while those who soberly and repeatedly rape their own children are protected from such an intrusion, such humiliation.
I will not repeat that violation. The illustration today is of The Four Courts: but the person I have in mind, the person whose liberty I seek is David Keirns; for his sake, and for ours. Decent civilisations do not imprison such as him; as the new Minister for Justice can indicate by releasing David without more ado.