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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.
Thats all this crowd do is say “Sorry” its not enough., this case and others are not school yard rows, where you get the children to apologize after an argument! We want/need accountability!
Get them to screw up a piece of paper stamp on it several times, open it up and say sorry. That’s exactly what happens the creases are the scars left behind, saying sorry doesn’t heal them. They need more than an apology!
Let’s have an enquiry !
Is there no politician in the country who has the balls for once and for all get rid of the overpaid, useless, bureaucratic HSE and give the public a good well operated Health Service. It’s an utter disgrace that every minister for health we ha e had just bides their time until a more sexy department comes along.
Hey,
This he said she said crap is pathetic and 9 to 5 on week days is not a proper service when it comes to the emotional needs of kids, or adults for that matter.
No doubt nobody will be made accountable in this case either.
Why are any of these people in the HSE not Fired for incompetence at the least and at best investigated for compliance ? They are as bad as those who committed these atrocities. Over and over again, the same people keep being caught with their ineptitude and still each government minister protects them, Why?
complicity not complience
Zero accountability
Kathleen Lynch will be held accountable in a few weeks
Tony,
Kathleen Lynch was not in office when all this crap started. If fact she was not in office in 2009 when it stopped. I am not a blue shirt/government supporter but the blame need to be unearthed.
What I would love to know who in the HSE allowed this to happen? What individual or individuals allowed this to happen? Who ignored the advice/evidence of abuse in this foster home? Who are these people who allowed a defenseless individual to be left in a foster home knowing abuse was being carried out?
No doubt the HSE and the Unions representing these people will do their best to keep the details private. As usual the courts will find against the HSE, Blame a systems failure and we the tax payer will end up footing an enormous bill.
As usual.
Alan, you’re right.
Ultimately, the buck stops with the minister, but some employee of the State made decisions that resulted in this poor woman’s prolonged misery.
No doubt the union will blame “lack of resources”, rather than lack of compassion and common decency.
@Alan Cooke
“No doubt the HSE and the Unions representing these people will do their best to keep the details private. As usual the courts will find against the HSE, Blame a systems failure and we the tax payer will end up footing an enormous bill.”
Ah but the difference in this case is that there is a Garda investigation and some members of HSE staff might be facing a charge of reckless endangerment.
There is defintley a trend, not just in this country, of children being abused by paedophiles in state care while the authorities know about it.
I would go as far as say that some state care institutions are fronts for paedophile rings and that is going on the works of Ted Gunderson, former No.3 in the FBI who devoted his life to investigate this after taking early retirement, and many others across Britain and Europe.
whoever sanctioned that action and somebody did should be sacked and prosecuted immediately.
Unions won’t allow that…
@Get Lost Eircodes
The decision on whether or not there will be prosecutions will be made by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, which is independent and thus unions have no control over this issue.
Public servant accountability eh? Would that be an oxymoron?
The least they deserve is an apology. But how does an apology help when you’ve been basically forgotten for 13+ years and left in that place.
Also, this only came up due to the PAC asking questions about costs?! A complete scandal and not getting the attention it deserves until now.
The minister and the top man in the HSE should be sacked with immediate effect.
Then a proper independent investigation to determine who else is responsible for this horrible mess and sack them too.
Why do we never hear of anyone in HSE loosing their jobs after any of these fiasco’s. Each one reported is worse than the one before. Could some TD ask the question in the Dail, ” How many million Euro has been paid out in compo. to all parties involved in litigation with the HSE over the past five years”. I’m sure that the figure would employ many many doctors , nurses, and open up many closed wards. It is frightful that they the necks to keep appearing in the media and trying to defend all their bunglings . If the Management had any decency they would walk away in shame, but sure that is the problem, there are far too many managers and nobody in control. The new Minister needs to fcuk them all out of there and take control. Why do we need Dept. Of Health and a HSE?.
Kathleen Lynch? …. ’nuff said.
Much as I don’t like Kathleen Lynch, she can’t be blamed for this, it’s a failure (yet again) of the HSE.
Yeah but her suggestion is to hold a Commission of Enquiry. Have they learned nothing? Simply passing the buck has solved nothing in the past and don’t you just get tired of ministers looking for ‘enquiries”,
The muppets in the hse strike again , but I’m sure these people have been in all weekend making sure the publics needs are been catered for . NOT!!!!!!! These people don’t live in the real world , screw up after screw up . They will hide behind closed doors and denie everything !!!
Not enough, people must be removed that were involved in this, from bottom to the top.hse needs to be told it works for the people, it is not a private company that can ignore procedures, and the law.
As per usual no one will be sacked,fined or jailed for this, not one minister in charge will do anything and if anything a commission will be set up to make money for civil servants on this woman’s misery. I’d have real concerns about their ability to perform their jobs in every field after this.
Tony O’Brien should be sacked and most of If not all in each department too, we have to rid our Country of this rot who only know whats in their pay packet every month.
Kathleen ‘We will be looking into it’ Lynch.
This woman spends more time looking into things than Hercule Poirot.
What sort of go shites,work,sorry wrong word doss in this service?
At what stage will this guy and Varadker /Lynch resign
I’m no fan of either Varadkar or Lynch, but neither were in office when this abuse started or finished.
The people responsible for this disgrace are only following the example set by the minister over the HSE. Sadly what else can you expect from a pig but a grunt. Re elect him for 5 more years of nothing. We get what we vote for.
Finnart Fail pointing fingers in this? Who’s watch was it when the HSE was established? Mary Harney opening up the health service for her buddies to own it, while Minister for Health in Aherne’s government. So many layers of unnecessary management put in while frontline services were ripped apart. I know she wasn’t in charge in the 80′s, but she and Reilly and Varadkar are all complicit in their eviscerating actions since. Lack of oversight and accountability at management level while nursing and other staff levels are allowed collapse. Break it up, then sell it off; monetarist policies re National Health Services the world over.
@Martin Meyler
“So many layers of unnecessary management…”
“Overnight, regardless of ability, all of these people became career bureaucrats. When it emerged that many of them were incapable of adapting to a larger national organisation, an unprecedented wave of recruitment took place.”
If the construction of private hospitals in co-location with existing public hospitals is the “evisceration” that you refer to, that plan is dead in the water because of the recession. Therefore, privatisation of the public health services is off the agenda.
By the way, as GP Dr Brendan O’Shea wrote, the unions representing the doctors and nurses are not innocent.
http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/health/nurses-must-allow-trolleys-on-wards-34351707.html
“The patient still lies on a trolley – but they are at less medical risk in the confines of the ward.
It is a screamingly obvious solution to some of the problems of congestion.
I believe the nurses are wrong in trying to frustrate it and there is a sense they are playing silly industrial relations games.
It should be part of any escalation procedures to alleviate the pressure when trolley traffic reaches a certain crisis.
Any attempts to obstruct it are akin to terrorists hiding themselves among unfortunate hostages.
Just like in bus disputes where passengers end up being kicked around, it is now the turn of the patient.
Doctors’ unions are also guilty of this when the occasion arises.”
And the Minister Kathleen Lynch responsible will not answear on this. Was she aware of it ?
Tip of the ice berg, may the h.s.e flood gates open, its a disgrace of a system
Who is the toad in the photograph? I take it that it isn’t Sam Boal?
Will the head of the HSE reading or be charged with neglecting their duty?? Will the journalist follow up on the people responsible? I bet not.
Those involved must of had some powerful connections.
God Almighty – What kind of peopke does the HSE employ. Do they have any logic or brain cells.
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