Godfrey's Gospel: In praise of women who forgo their anonymity

I DIDN’T follow closely the case of Gisele Pelicot and how badly she was treated by her husband and up to 70 men who raped her, but, like everyone else, I applauded her courage in coming forward to ensure that her husband and his accomplices faced the full rigours of the law.

She is, indeed, a very brave woman – the facts of this case are almost too harrowing to be believable – but, unfortunately, they are true. Thankfully, all those responsible received custodial sentences and, while we may believe the French court was too lenient with some, the reality is each accused can rightly be referred to as a rapist from now on.

But while we all applaud Ms Pelicot, we should not forget that we have seen some very brave women step out from the shadows in this country to highlight rape, incest and physical abuse.

This country may have had a reputation for being the land of a thousand welcomes, but behind the false smiles the society we lived in was rotten to the core. Think of all the unfortunate Magdalene laundry victims, the brutality inflicted on them and their offspring, often by those who were responsible for them in the first place.

Child abuse was rampant, covered up by those whose job should have been to protect the victims. Think of Carlow woman Maureen Sullivan, who confided in a nun about the abuse she endured at the hands of her stepfather, only to be hidden away in institutions until she eventually managed to make a life for herself abroad. The authorities stole her teenage years and education, and all because they didn’t want to face reality and come to her aid.

Think of all the people who now enjoy some sense of closure as they get to tell their side at trial by giving victim impact statements. Everyone has a young girl to thank for that – Lavinia Kerwick – the first Irish rape survivor to waive anonymity. She is also the reason the director of public prosecutions can now appeal undue leniency in sentencing.

It was New Year’s Eve 1991 and the young girl was on her way home with her boyfriend when he raped her, leaving her with life-changing injuries. After she reported the rape to the gardaí, she said she came under extreme pressure in the community to withdraw her statement because it was ruining the life of her attacker.

I can clearly remember former associates who were working in the Kilkenny area speaking to me about the case and referring to the young woman as a publicity junkie. Thankfully, they only said that to me once, because if they had repeated it I would probably have faced a court case myself.

The following year, after her attacker had the case against him adjourned for a year, after which he would be given what turned out to be a suspended sentence, Lavinia went on the Gerry Ryan Show, named herself and gave an account of the incident live on radio.

Instead of being applauded for her bravery, both she and Gerry Ryan were found to be in contempt of court. Ryan was fined and could easily have lost his job, while Lavinia was threatened with jail.

Thankfully, public outrage at her treatment took over and the-then minister for justice Padraig Flynn began the process of changing legislation to allow victim impact statements to be read in court – and also giving the DPP the power to appeal the leniency of sentences.

Lavinia suffered for her bravery; at one stage anorexia saw her body weight plummet to just two and a half stone, but, thankfully, she managed to pull through and rebuild her life as best she could.

But not a day goes by that her bravery over 30 years ago continues to impact in a positive way on the lives of others. All victims of crime now get to give their side of the story in victim impact statements and the DPP has exercised the right to appeal sentences whenever they deem a judge was too lenient.

Sadly, even with those two landmark decisions, there are far too many rape and abuse cases before the courts. Only last week, we saw a former Irish rugby player receive a 14-year prison sentence in France when he and a few of his ‘friends’ were convicted of raping a young woman.

The world needs women like Lavinia, Maureen and Gisele to keep stepping into public view to highlight the wrongs that have been done to them and, hopefully, the time will come when we will see fewer such crimes. At the moment that doesn’t seem possible, but all society can do is continue to listen, prosecute and, hopefully, get the message across as to what is acceptable behaviour and what is wrong.