This article is from page 4 of the 2007-03-20 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
that they “join with the community in offering support to
Mary Shannon during this traumatic time, for her and her family”’.
The statement continued that those involved in the organisation felt that the three-year suspended sentence served on her perpetrator “was nel- ther fair nor consistent with other rape sentences. This man pleaded not guilty to rape, thus forcing Mary to give evidence of her experience. He was found guilty by a jury, yet the fact remains his crime goes unpun- ished”.
The statement said that it is “ex- tremely difficult for women to come forward and report rape or domestic abuse. It is worrying that the outcome of this trial will discourage women
from disclosing rape and abuse, thus leaving them in a potentially danger- ous situation and undoing all of the good work and practices that many agencies in this country have striven hard to achieve”.
The Clare Haven statement added that they “commend Mary on her courage to waive her anonymity and in her determination to challenge the system, and we offer her our full sup- port now and in the future”.
Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for the Rape Crisis Centre in Limerick said they were “horrified” at the sen- tence.
She said there was a “huge swell of phone calls from women after the
sentence and every one of them ex- pressed support for Mary. The other thing that most of them said was that if they were raped, what would be the point in reporting it?”
The centre recently ran a major me- dia campaign under the title of “An- other Silent Night”, urging victims of rape and sex abuse to speak out, report the crime and seek help.
“Tt is so difficult to convince wom- en to report rape, it’s so hard to get a rape case as far as court, and then When you do get a conviction, the rapist gets a suspended sentence. It’s sending out the message to perpetra- tors that it’s fine – go ahead and do it. After all, what will they do to you?”