The sexual assault by a soldier of a female colleague which was dealt with by a Court Martial on Friday is one of "thousands" of such incidents in the Defence Forces, the Women of Honour group has said.
The accused, a non-commissioned officer, received a fine and a loss of seniority after a military judge decided against discharging him from the Defence Forces.
The military prosecutor in the case indicated it is likely to appeal the sentence in the civilian courts and said it is unprecedented for a soldier to continue serving after a sexual assault conviction.
The defendant was found guilty of sexual assault and conduct prejudicial to good order and discipline. He was acquitted of a similar charge for allegedly remarking “she has certainly done that before” when another female soldier pretended to remove a shirt from a mannequin during the first aid training.
The court heard that the accused was teaching a first aid course to a group of female recruits and was instructing them on how to aid someone who was chocking. As he demonstrated on the woman, he cupped her breast, leaving his hand there for between 10 and 20 seconds.
He was fined 14 day's pay, amounting to about €1,345. Military Judge Colonel Michael Campion also imposed the forfeiture of 10 years seniority and reduced his pay rate by two points on a four-point scale. He will retain his current rank.
However, the soldier may still face dismissal through a non-judicial process if his senior officers decide he is no longer fit to serve. He will also not be permitted to deploy on UN peacekeeping service as the UN does not accept personnel with sexual assault convictions.
He may also face difficulties in renewing accreditation to teach medical courses.
Dyane Byrne, a former Defence Forces member, said there are many other incidents of sexual abuse or misconduct in the military which did not make it to court.
Ms Byrne is part of the Women of Honour group which last year brought forward allegations of rape, sexual abuse, harassment and discrimination in the Defence Forces.
‘Tokenism’
She said the prosecution of a small number of soldiers for sexual offences feels like “tokenism” in the face of a much more widespread problem.
Ms Byrne said “99.99 per cent” of cases do not result in a court martial. “If anything, the victim is punished and they’re pushed out the door while the perpetrator is being rewarded or getting away with it.”
She said the Women of Honour group was “conflicted” on whether Friday’s sentence was too lenient.
“It is outrageous that someone can do this and not lose their job. In any other walk of life, they would.”
On the other hand, she said, “one individual has been brought to some level of justice. That’s much further than anyone else was able to get,” Ms Byrne said.
“But we’ve been numbed to this. There are thousands of these cases but we’re only talking about this one.”
Ms Byrne repeated the group’s call for an independent statutory inquiry into abuse within the Defence Forces. “We’re asking them to do a statutory inquiry where they can investigate how they have dealt with all of these, what the punishments have been, how many made it to court. That’s the conversation we’re asking for them to have.”
Minister for Defence Simon Coveney has ordered a judge-led inquiry of the allegations but stopped short of ordering a statutory investigation which would have the power to compel witnesses.
