Updated 11.30
Campaigners are warning about the message sent out when a sex offender gets a suspended sentence.
Dublin Rape Crisis Centre was reacting to the punishment handed down to a Wexford businessman for an attack on a young woman in Killarney in August 2011.
The perpetrator (48) dragged his victim into the spare bedroom of a B and B where he assaulted her.
Handing down sentence yesterday, the judge at Tralee Circuit Court noted the 'hugely traumatic effect' the ordeal had on the victim, but also noted the man's guilty plea, and suspended a two year jail term for two years. He was also put on the sex offender's register.
CEO of Dublin Rape Crisis Centre Ellen O'Malley Dunlop told Newstalk's Breakfast that when an entire sentence is suspended, victims often feel they haven't got justice:
Tom O’Malley of NUIG spoke to Newstalk's Pat Kenny show about the principle of suspended sentences, and why judges take mitigating circumstances into consideration:
