FitzPatrick’s trial is a new low for Ireland

EVERYONE knows our legal system is a sick joke and that our very expensive Supreme Court is unaffordable to ordinary citizens.

Week in, week out in criminal cases one sees delays, obfuscation and finally a judicial sentence that defies all logic, with excuses for the inexcusable and thugs beating up senior citizens when robbing, getting a derisory slap on the hand.

This week was however a watershed with Seán FitzPatrick cleared all charges due apparently to legal incompetence by the staff employed by our Government.

Highly paid qualified solicitors and barristers could not sustain one single charge against FitzPatrick and there were 21 such charges.

This scenario means that our legal representatives are so badly trained that they cannot present a legal case efficiently and is a shocking indictment on our universities, and the Law Society.

Government inaction over legislation regarding white collar crime may also be a contributing factor but the legal team prosecuting FitzPatrick had salient facts, specific legal rules and resources yet could not even get the case to be presented to the jury.

Moving to more serious issues like murder we once again have a criminal sentenced to life... a meaningless term in Irish law.

In Glasgow the killer of the Cork nurse was tried and convicted in four and a half months and sentenced to a specific 24 years without parole.

In Ireland, killers can again roam the streets after seven, ten, 20 years. Sentences are a lottery with parole endemic and victims never considered.

JOHN P KELLY, Clontarf, Dublin 3.