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A CONTROVERSIAL CASE which saw a confessed rapist have his entire seven-year sentence suspended by High Court Judge Patrick McCarthy has gained plenty of column inches over the last two days in Ireland.
The victim of the rapes, Niamh Ní Dhomhnail, even waived her right to anonymity so that her abuser, 25-year-old Norwegian Magnus Meyer Hustveit, could also be named.
Yesterday she took to Ireland’s airwaves in a series of impassioned condemnations of the leniency shown to Hustveit in his sentencing.
Yet, in Hustveit’s home nation, his conviction, while being reported, has barely registered as more than a mild curiosity. Why?
For starters, in Norway convicted rapists are very seldom named. It seems the Norwegian approach is firmly based upon the rehabilitation of those convicted.
But would Hustveit have been convicted in his home nation?
“He might have been convicted in Norway, but it’s slightly different; here violent and threatening behaviour is the defining element in the rape law, but in practice definitions are changing,” Lisa Arntzen, a social worker at the Dixi Resource Center against Rape in Oslo, told TheJournal.ie .
It’s correct that the rapist is not usually named here, although they sometimes are if it’s something special, a special case.
I can understand the logic behind it (naming the rapist), but it’s not like that in Norway.
I don’t think it’s right however that this guy doesn’t get any punishment at all. He admits that he did rape her – there’s no question but that he should have gotten some prison time.
While things are different in Norway, the idea of lenient rape law is really an international question. The UN has declared that absence-of-consent should be the defining element in rape laws.
“The absence of consent isn’t so important here, although it should be,” says Arntzen.
Cases get blocked. Having sex with someone who’s sleeping isn’t seen as part of the law.
But having sex with someone who is asleep or otherwise not able to give consent is rape, and this should be included in Norwegian law, as well as in all other countries.
Having said that, I do believe this particular man would have gotten jail time if he had been convicted here.
Arntzen doesn’t think that Hustveit would have been named in his own country however.
She points TheJournal.ie towards several (private, so not linkable unfortunately) Norwegian social media conversations where people (discussing Hustveit’s case) express incredulity that the press would name a rapist, and suggest that more conversation/treatment and less punishment is often the way forward.
We want these people to come back to society and not to re-offend. It’s important that perpetrators get better, and this is followed up afterwards.
And that’s not just the authorities’ idea either:
Many say that they don’t want the perpetrator to be named publicly because it may also identify the victim and their families.
But other also say they want the rapist to get help, most of all, so that they don’t re-offend, and that is why they report the rape.
It’s not only the length of the sentence, but also the content (such as treatment) of it that is crucial in prohibiting the rapist from committing new crimes.
Helpline
If you have been affected by anything in relation to this article, the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre operates a free helpline 24 hours a day, 365 days a year on 1800 77 88 88 or you can visit this website.
When you go into any of the banks now there are hardly any staff, just machines. If you have a complaint who do you talk to?
The banks do not want customers in the branches anymore.
Now they want us to be fans?
Pay back the money you owe the taxpayers who bailed you out and then treat your customers with some respect. That would be a good starting point.
@Noel: Just a measure of the incredible arrogance of AIB who have raided out taxes not once but twice.
The arrogance that we might turn into fans is breathtaking from these abject failures.
Zombie business kept afloat by our taxes for the next couple of generation. And that’s the moral hazard in a nutshell, they smugly know they can produce any knd of rubbish and continually fail knowing we have to bail them out. In what other business sector would that happen. I despise this Bank especially as it’s their second time to steal!
@Noel: if only . Nah .. they won’t
@Turk Oneeighttwo: The thing is, next time their won’t be the funds to bail them out.
Glad they’re wasting loads of money on this guy to tell them they need to charge customers more money for services that were free for years before they ruined it for themselves with their own incompetence and needed all our money to stay afloat…
Wait, did I miss something in this article? It sounds all upbeat and positive, and there’s not one single solitary positive thing about it.
AIB Bosses: “Lads…how can we make customers like us again?”
This Fairytale Lad: “I know! Comfy chairs, colourful paint schemes, and making them pay to talk to a human being.”
Someone with common sense: “Could we try not screwing them over every opportunity we get?”
AIB Bosses: “Comfy chairs and charges for basic services it is!”
@Bryan Kelly: probably stopping the practice of deliberately stealing money from customers by deliberately over charging would be a help
@Bryan Kelly: I am a total fan of having my direct debit screwed up cause on a win they took some fee for some imaginary thing that they dreamed last night .
@WilhelminaMCallaghan: dumb phone
# on a whim
Let me stop you there Mr. Gowl. Don’t get too comfy in the job and keep that CV handy. Banks are utilities, a means to an end. No one will ever buy into your brand. All that matters is who is the cheapest, who doesn’t rip off its customers and who doesn’t bring the country to its knees. Come back to us when you figure that out.
@Shane Gleeson: not true. All industries are being disrupted by companies who focus right at what the customer values, and putting the commodity to the back of the thinking. Your thinking is backwards. Innovation in banking as a service will happen. The only question is whether blockchain will drive it or not
Mark Gould are you nuts? Turning customers into “fans” after the misery you caused? You need a miracle, go see that guy with the Mary statue….
@Gus Sheridan: i wonder do the mean literally
@Gus Sheridan: not in my lifetime. Too much destruction caused by these a-holes. The only type of fan I would be is a rioting one.
And AIB should be the fans. Fans of every man woman and child saddled with billions of debt and keeping these zombies in business.
“Self service should be cheap or free” l never darken the door of my branch do everything on line. But they still chargd me €45 every quarter…..
That sounds like it came from a court session in a domestic abuse case or a from a terrorist training manual on instilling Stockholm Syndrome. It will also come a pot of KY Jelly and handcuffs
@Patrick J. O’Rourke: Who makes this shite up? I
Buy Bitcoin & finally put the need for banks in the bin. Take control of your own money
@George Harvey: Funny, if I kept all my savings solely in bitcoin from the past 3 years I would a multi millionaire, instead, my savings are worth less now due to inflation.
Haha. What a horrendous joke of an idea. And will they be expecting the “fans” to pay to interact with the banks then?
I had my first account and was my main account for 22 years
I needed to get a job abroad for a while but insured I still used it every few months
Once and once ever I went 4 months without using it. It was shut down
No letter, no email. When I contacted them and went into the branch no care or shits were given
They must have borrowed Leo’s strategic communications unit to come up with this excrement.
@Dave Doyle: ha!
No sane person should consider themselves a ‘Fan’ to any Bank.
Credit where its due, that clown got one thing right, we will never forget how they made us feel.Banksters.
I was a customer of AIB and was trading as a small company had an overdraft of a couple of grand I paid back on time but never saved much.
AIB sent me a letter more or less saying they did want me as a customer no reason given my account was closed.
This was back in early nought ‘s during the boom.
So I have no time for AIB.
Have been banking with ptsb since.
They can f…. right off
They must be on some great drugs
@Rui Firmino: Exactly.
@Rui Firmino: they’re so far removed from reality it’s actually amazing.
@Deborah Behan: the scary part is that they ARE the reality and we let them become that. I have no problem telling my banks where to go and the number of the bus to take, but I am old and self sufficient. The people who depend on banks to get by and other things in life such as mortgages, cannot adopt the contemptuous attitude I have towards them, and I have nothing but contempt for the leeches that they are.
Tell them to get lost
The mind boggles, we are charged for using the service every week, in transaction, etc how is the service free? How Can they ask for even more money just to speak to someone, you hold you money there, you have loans and paying interest, you use the atm and get charged, now more money to keep the people there already there, is this guy crazy? He can just f c u k right off ff,
Fans me a r s e,, idiot
Yeah right.. cancelled my overdraft without any notice back in days of austerity and bank bailouts left with nothing for three weeks. I definitely won’t be forgetting.
I preferred their earlier stuff
Buy bitcoin, be your own bank and fan
Pay yer takes ye robbing *********
@Zossima: taxes, can’t spell with anger
Really, fan of a bank? Banks always have and always will be institutions that offer an umbrella when the sun is shining and take it away when it starts raining. AIB in particular …
What a shame AIB plc didn’t appreciate the staff they had who were loyal.hard working and knew their customers. Instead they have ushered them out the door and NOW they are looking to hire staff to push this new cuddly agenda. And live in Dublin on less than 25k. Good luck with that!!!!!@
instead of “soft seating” they could drop the fees for having a bank acc., paying with card, direct debits etc.
It should’ve been kept in public hands. now it will be abused by developers and speculators.
Fans? What about all the people hoodwinked by AIBs Belfry Investments. Proposed, pushed, managed by AIB. Money lent by AIB to investors. All monies lost and AIB – who didn’t lose a penny – walked away and said tough luck to all the investors, some of whom were very elderly pensioners. Fans my ass!
They have a long way to go thats for sure
are they going to reach out to us?
a puck up the h-le if they try it on me..
Two words “Credit Union”. Where the members are put first.
Ah do they now
Beyond all the fans nonsense they’ve expressed no desire to be competitive and intend to gouge the most loyal.
I only have a little bit of dealings with them but that ends on Monday.
Totally disgusted that a financial institution would allow this crap to be seen by the public.
Hilarious rubbish. AIB must think we are all stupid. Then again maybe we are!!!!!
@Micheal S. O’ Ceilleachair: I’d need a lobotomy. Although that may have already happened!
economic crash took out most of their competitors here too left them with a free run robbers
AIB headquarters should be symbolically burned to the ground by thousands of its victims !
‘Customers will never forget how you made them feel’ …… yeah suicidal for many
C@nts
That dirty rotten cont
It’s the tax payer that bailed that shower of wankirs out and we are still paying for it and until I retire if I live that long
Every customer should and has to treated like a special individual and not criminalized into a feeling like they are doing you a great favor for trying to do a it of personal business or whatever the case may be
What has this dude been smoking?
If there are more evil people out there, I simply feel obliged to deny their existence. This “fans” business is beyond horrifying. Thank you for this story – I trust it will win Hunanitarian Campaign Of The Year.
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