How Lavinia put towering Pee Flynn in his place

LAVINIA Kerwick has thrown her weight behind the campaign for changes in our rape law, saying victims need to trust the legal system when reporting a rape. She speaks from harsh experience as a rape victim and casualty of a justice system that seemed to her more designed to give shelter to defendants like her boyfriend William Conroy than injured parties. By highlighting her ex’s lenient sentence – his sentence was adjourned for a year – Lavinia helped bring in changes to allow victim impact reports in criminal trials and for the DPP to appeal lenient sentences. But probably her greatest legacy was helping remove some of the stigma about rape. Describing her ordeal on the Gerry Ryan show was a watershed. By becoming one of the first Irish women to waive her anonymity, she encouraged more women to reveal their identity in public and demand retribution. In the 1990s as she shot to prominence she cut a frail and emaciated figure that belied her extraordinary strength and self-belief. The paradox took many by surprise including then Justice Minister Pádraig Flynn who she asked to meet. Treating the delicate flower before him with utmost sensitivity, the minister, who was also conscious of towering over Lavinia physically, was astonished when she said, ‘Minister, for the last few weeks I have ruled Ireland.’ That put him in his place.