A Parish Priest today defended his decision to write a reference for a vicious sex attacker who repeatedly raped a Polish woman in the grounds of a church.
Richard Finn was yesterday jailed for 12 years for subjecting the terrified woman to a two and a half hour ordeal which he photographed on his mobile phone.
Father Pat Bradley, of the Scared Heart Church in Clondalkin, said he took it on himself to write the testimony so the judge could hear the facts about Finn’s troubled background.
He maintained he did not ask for mitigation for Finn, but just outlined what he knew about the boy so the judge could make a better judgement when sentencing.
Fr Bradley said the sex attack was out of character for the young man he knew.
“My job is to do what I can to see the good side in people as well, and that’s balanced out because the boy pleaded guilty,” Fr Bradley said.
“We knew the very bad side of the young man. Nobody is totally, totally, totally bad.
“I was hoping that justice could be done in the sentence of a man.” Finn (20) of Rockfield Drive, Clondalkin, pleaded guilty to rape and oral rape of a woman on July 22nd, 2007.
He had grabbed his victim from behind while she walked to work at about 7.30am and forced her in the grounds of the Church of Immaculate Conception and a school until nearly 10am.
Fr Bradley told RTE radio although he hasn’t seen Finn since the assault, he planned to visit him in jail.
He said he was shocked by the terrible crime which had devastated his mother.
“I was as sorry as anybody was and as upset by it and I found it a very horrible thing,” he continued.
“If I could have met the Polish person, the victim of the crime, I would certainly have done so but unfortunately she’s gone from the country.
“It must be absolutely devastating for her. “I’m happy that Richard confessed or pleaded guilty to the crime. In a sense that it saved her more distress.
“I’m not in any way minimising what happened or the seriousness, but it is in that kind of a context I decided yes to make my testimony known because I knew the boy personally.”
Fr Bradley said Finn came from a decent family who thinks his crime was absolutely horrible.
“They don’t condone it in any way. He has to pay the price and his mother says it is right that he has to go to prison,” he said.
In the letter handed in to Mr Justice Paul Carney at the Central Criminal Court before the weekend, the priest said the family suffered greatly in 2001 when Finn’s older brothers, Alan and Emmet, plunged to their deaths in a stolen car in the Grand Canal.
Callers to the Liveline radio show criticised the priest for his actions.
Last week Labour TD Kathleen Lynch caused outrage in Cork when she wrote a letter testifying to the good character of the family of another convicted rapist, Trevor Casey.
PA