JUDGE WANTS TO SEE CRIME VICTIMS COMPENSATED FOR INJURIES
A Circuit Court Judge wants those seriously injured as a result of crime to be compensated and says the it should be treated as a matter of urgency.
“The current position is that the State spends huge sums of money punishing criminals through incarceration yet little or expenditure is provided for making redress to victims of crime,” said Judge Keenan Johnson at a sitting of the Circuit Court in Sligo.
He pointed out that victims of crime in either Northern Ireland or the UK can be compensated for out of pocket expenses, physical and psychological injuries under State funded criminal compensation schemes.
“It seems to me to be a gross inequity that the same situation does not pertain in this jurisdiction,” said the Judge.
He said he was making the comments in the hope they would provoke a discussion on the issue.
“Given that we have an adequate compensation system in place to compensate prison officers and Gardaí who are injured in the course of their duties and road users injured by uninsured drivers, I think it is only fair and just we have similar provisions in place to aid and assist victims of crime,” he said.
The Judge said that such a compensation scheme had been in place prior to 1981 but due to economic difficulties this was severely curtailed and now only provides victims with out of pocket, vouched expenses.
The Sligo born Judge said it was a principal of sentencing that one of the reasons why an accused should be punished is because they have breached their contract with society to abide by its laws and behave themselves. “This contract works both ways and society has an obligation to citizens to ensure they are protected from criminality and further that where they become the victims of criminality, society makes every effort to undo the wrong that has been perpetrated on them. This effort by society involves not only the application of punishment through the criminal justice system but should also involve an element of compensation to the victim,” he said.
He believed a compensation fund for victims of crime could be funded from the money saved by the greater use of suspended sentences. The cost of jailing somone was in the region of € 65,000 a year.
“Suspended sentences get a very bad press and are often represented as judges being soft on crime.
“However, in my experience the reportage on suspended sentences invariably fails to report on the onerous conditions that are often imposed with such sentences.
“Such conditions can include a requirement to pay compensation to the victim along with requirements to attend rehabilitation programmes.”
Judge Johnson made his remarks when jailing a man for eight years for burglary during which a householder was severely beaten.
The offence occurred on May 4th 2015 in Ballydavis, County Laois.
Michael Gleeson, a heroin addict, had been out drinking in Tracey’s pub where he met Paul Kelly who decided to leave and go home after the accused was behaving aggressively.
Gleeson kicked in the door of Mr Kelly’s home, pulled him out of bed and subjected him to one of the most vicious assaults the Judge said he had ever come across. Mr Kelly suffered a fracture to the front of his skull and a broken jaw and was hospitalised for several weeks.
The Judge said that the photographs of Mr Kelly’s bedroom were like something out of a horror movie.
“The bedroom is like an abattoir with blood all over the place. The evidence disclosed the horrible fact that following the assault, Mr Kelly was unable to find his footing as he was slipping around on the floor in his own blood,” said the Judge, who noted that the victim had made an excellent recovery from his physical injuries.
The court heard the guilty plea by Gleeson to burglary was accepted by the State on the basis of the full facts being disclosed with the other counts of assault and threatening to kill being marked proved and taken into consideration.
The Judge said there was no provision to compensate Mr Kelly for the serious and sustained pain and suffering he had endured to date and in the future.
Little or no expenditure is provided for making redress to victims of crime