Catch And Release

Sometimes I just don't get the law. There are hairs being split, technicalities argued over, and then the judge makes a decision that does not seem to make sense.

In Ireland, a man has just been released from Arbour Hill Prison. At the time of his arrest he was 38 years of age. He was charged with having sex with a girl who was twelve at the time, and was convicted in 2004. Now, here it is, 2006, and the Supreme Court has decided that the law banning sex with underage girls is unconstitutional because it did not make allowances for the poor lad who believed the lassie was older than she appeared.

What does that have to do with the current case? The man pleaded guilty two years ago. He admitted that he gave the girl two Bacardi Breezers and two vodkas, which means the child was falling down drunk. In fact, she passed out, and when she woke up to spew, she was raped. The man said he had done it, all of it, and he was convicted.

It would seem that the entire law, making it illegal to have sex with underage females, has been tossed out because of a technicality, so even though this bastard is guilty, he must be set free because he was convicted on a faulty law. The law was struck down because a sixteen year old boy had consensual sex with a fourteen year old girl who told him she was sixteen, and that was not fair to the boy, as far as the Supreme Court could see. So a 38-year-old man, convicted of drugging and raping a 12-year-old girl, has been set free.

Can you understand now why the prosecutors bring in as many possible convictions as they can dream up? That is the safety net for the victim, the web of crimes that the prosecutor weaves, tangling up the criminal so that if one thread should fail, there are others to keep the rapists imprisoned.

I'm sure the Public Prosecutor will do so next time, find as many statutes on the books as possible to throw at the rapist. And there will be a next time. You know he will rape again. And the next victim can take comfort in the fact that an unfair law has been banished.