TD who backs castrating sex offenders ‘regrets’ supporting child abuser
Independent Ireland’s leader Michael Collins says ‘I was wrong’ to write a letter seeking leniency for a former garda convicted of abusing a young boy in HSE care
THE leader of the fledgling Independent Ireland party – who recently called for tougher sentences for sex offenders, including castration – said he regrets writing a letter seeking clemency for a former guard who abused a vulnerable child in care.
Michael Collins wrote the letter in 2013, the year before he was elected to Cork County Council, and three years before his elevation to the Dáil in the 2016 general election.
In a recent Hot Press interview, the Cork
South-West TD said those convicted of sex offences should face stiffer sentences. Asked if he believed rapists and paedophiles should be chemically castrated, he replied: ‘Yeah. Quite simple, yeah.’
But 11 years ago, Mr Collins, then a private citizen, wrote a lengthy character reference for a convicted sexual offender appealing for leniency.
In the letter, Mr Collins wrote: ‘I have lived all of my life in the Mizen Peninsula since my birth in 1968 and for the past 30 years have been involved in many community groups from been [sic] chairman of our local community council, Community Alert, Church and farm, all voluntary organisations trying to do good in our community for others.’
Mr Collins said the convicted sex offender, Damien Jermyn, ‘worked in the community on a voluntary basis from a young age helping raise funds through Macra Na Feirme for many charities’.
He added: ‘He showed great leadership in what many would say was a difficult time for him as his mother had been diagnosed with a serious health ailment.’
In November 2013, Jermyn, a former garda, was convicted of two counts of the defilement of a 16-year-old boy in HSE care. He was sentenced to two years in jail with the final year suspended.
But in his letter to the judge in the case, Mr Collins said Jermyn was ‘highly respected in this community and when he got his job it was a source of great pride here and for many they felt it was what he truly deserved after a life of giving to others’.
Mr Collins also praised the sex offender for ‘coming home caring for his mother and involving himself in raising funds for local charities with vintage runs and giving of his time freely to others’.
He said that when news of Jermyn’s ‘problems arose in the media it was met with a sense of shock and it numbed the community here’.
Mr Collins said the abuse of the teenager ‘was so out of character for Damien’, adding: ‘It was difficult for people to comprehend, the hurt it has caused so many the victim, his family, and Damien’s family.’ He added: ‘I or no one could condone Damien’s actions but as I said it was so out of character that so many in this community are still in shock.
‘But from speaking to people they have not forgot the good he had done and would hope that
Damien would seek the professional help he requires to understand the wrong he has done and to in some way put right to a degree this wrong by getting this help while at the same time care for his extremely ill mother in the months ahead.’
In response to queries from the Irish Mail on Sunday this weekend, the Independent Ireland leader said: ‘As I said 11 years ago when I was interviewed about this letter by the media, I regret writing this letter.’
He stressed he would not write such a letter today.
‘Since getting into politics I have met so many people hurt by others, and it has matured me enough not to write a letter of clemency for anyone,’ he said.
The Cork-West TD also said he has not written similar letters in support of criminals either before or since, adding: ‘I was not a politician when this letter was written. I have learnt since then that all types of sexual crime need to be dealt with harshly.’
On launching his first campaign for the Dáil in 2016, Mr Collins told the local Southern Star newspaper he very much regretted writing the letter on behalf of the convicted abuser.
‘He is highly respected in this community’
The then councillor said he wrote a letter to a judge on behalf of an acquaintance, whose son was in court. Mr Collins said at the time: ‘Firstly, I regret it, and I am sorry that I sent this letter.
‘It was wrong to do this and again I am very sorry. I wrote the letter because of his mother’s medical condition. She is very ill and while I cannot imagine the pain and suffering the victim of this terrible crime and their family must have been going through, my actions were, and are unacceptable, and I would like to apologise.’
Mr Collins is the leader of the rural-centred Independent Ireland party, which has three sitting Dáil deputies and plans to run up to 100 councillors in the June local elections. It recently unveiled former RTÉ midlands correspondent Ciaran Mullooly as a candidate for the European elections.
Mr Collins said the party plans to field no fewer than 50 candidates in the general election and hopes to win between 12 and 15 seats, which could leave it holding the balance of power in the next Dáil.
‘Sexual crimes need to be dealt with harshly’