Immigrant groups criticise judge's remarks on knife crime

IMMIGRANT GROUPS have criticised remarks made by Mr Justice Paul Carney who blamed some of the rise in knife crime on recent arrivals to Ireland.

Mr Justice Carney told a lecture in University College Cork (UCC) that knife crime is "out of control" and that cases coming before the courts had doubled in a very short period of time.

He blamed the phenomenon on a number of factors and said immigrants who have not integrated into Irish society "buy vodka or beer in the off-licence and are drinking in a flat when a row breaks out and one person reaches for a kitchen knife and stabs the other person".

The Immigrant Council of Ireland's senior solicitor Hilkka Becker said the notion that knife crime happened in the home setting was not unique to the immigrant population. She said that the immigrant council was not aware of statistics that backed up the judge's contention. "We think the comments are unfortunate in that they reinforce negative stereotypes about migrants in a way that is not going to help integration," she said. "Recently released research shows that a significant number of migrants have become victims of crime since arriving in Ireland."

Solicitor Kevin Brophy, the principal solicitor of Brophy Solicitors in Dublin and an expert on immigration issues, said the comments were "completely unacceptable" from a judge.

He told Newstalk's Breakfast Programme: "He [Carney] talks about immigrants that don't integrate as if there is some implication that if they do integrate, if immigrants become more Irish than they are Polish or Nigerian or whatever, that they are less likely to become involved in knife crime. The immigrant community have enough problems in this country as it is without having a High Court judge branding them."

The national co-ordinator of the New Communities Partnership, Issah Huseini, described Mr Justice Carney's remarks as a "sweeping statement". "[It] would have us believe that the immigrant community at large living in Ireland are knife-wielding drinkers with a tendency to commit fatal crimes. Indeed, such a statement from a person of Judge Carney's reputation has the potential to . . . erode the good relationships that exist between many Irish people and immigrants."

However, Mr Justice Carney's contention that manslaughter sentences are frequently too light won support from the victims support group AdVic. The judge quoted from an address by Joan Deane, one of the founders of the group whose son was killed violently five years ago.

Ms Deane said that sentences for manslaughter are frequently too lenient and that there should be a judicial review of the whole sentencing for violent crime.

"Judges are hog-tied by the Court of Criminal Appeal. He [the judge] understands the frustration of victims and victims' families and the court of public opinion."

Sentencing expert Tom O'Malley, a senior lecturer in law at NUI Galway, pointed out that manslaughter is by definition a lesser crime than murder, and therefore there will always be mitigating circumstances in sentencing, but the Court of Criminal Appeal has never said manslaughters must be sentenced at a certain level.