WE all know the layman is not supposed to understand the law and is expected to hold the courts, the legal profession and, most of all, the bench in speechless and reverential awe. For a judge merely to suspect that you are criticising him is enough for you to face 10 years as a galley slave before being keel hauled around the fleet.
So what follows should not be construed as a criticism of judges, who are an unspeakably fine bunch of fellows modest, prudent and wise and let me add that I am lost in admiration at the forensic skills of the bar which have been so adroitly used to release so many who thought they were going down for life. Well done, lads.
In August 1991 two German tourists camped in Phoenix Park. While they slept, their tent was seen by four men, including Paul McDonagh and John Francis McAllister, who, decided to attack and rob the tourists. They capsized the tent, and assaulted the visitors with the ancient technique of thumbs in the eyeballs. This blinds and disables instantly and for a long time afterwards.
Badly Battered
The two Germans were then severely beaten with pieces of timber. One of them Georg Plappert was so badly battered that he died of his injuries. The other, Roland Stewen received permanent eye injuries.
All in all, it is not a story Bord Failte has seen fit to give a great deal of international publicity to (no doubt they have their reasons) and it was an event which filled most Irish people with a deep sense of shame. The one mitigating factor in an entirely squalid affair was the arrest of four men for the attack shortly afterwards.
At this point, we return to the opening paragraph of this column the bit about the layman not being supposed to understand the law. In this sense I am your average lay man. No doubt to secure a conviction in criminal trials, deals are done, words are exchanged, promises made. This is not an Irish phenomenon but a common one through the adversarial system of the common law in which the right to silence is a keystone.
We all know now that the entire common law system has fallen into terminal disrepute. It is regarded with almost complete and utter contempt by the law abiding community as conferring excessive protection upon the criminal. No less a person than the late Niall McCarthy known as God to the legal profession once told me angrily that the greatest injustices done in Irish life were done not to the imprisoned but to the community at large through the acquittal of the guilty.
Loopholes and ratruns seam the entire legal system in favour of the professional criminal a fault in tiny documentary detail is enough to see a jeering, bomber, the slayer of many, triumphantly carried shoulder high from the court while briefs toddle to the bank and gardai who have risked their lives, and squandered maybe years of them trying to secure a conviction, watch on haplessly, fuming.
That was an aside. A mere aside, me lud, a coffee break, if you will. The surviving German identified one of the accused, but the court ruled that since there were only six men in the identity parade and not eight and the accused's solicitor wasn't present, the identification didn't stand. And because admissions made by another man were ruled out of order because of "oppressive questioning", whatever that is, he too walked free.
No doubt a colossal triumph for the legal system and for the bright and blameless boys who run it but am I the only one with a sour taste in his mouth after reading such stuff?
Found Guilty
Two men were found guilty McDonagh of manslaughter, and McAllist who pleads guilty not to murder or even manslaughter or even grievous bodily harm, or intent to commit injury, or anything to do with the main offence which occurred that night in Phoenix Park, hut merely with stealing money from the surviving German. "Stealing" seems a somewhat tepid description of events which left one German dead and another partially blinded.
The court was told that this upstanding gentleman had .661 previous convictions, including several for violence. And although a father of three, he had, "(or so the court was told) no" fixed abode. He received seven years' imprisonment.
This Christmas, some bright spark in the Department of Justice thought this model citizen should be allowed Christmas, parole, though having spent only three Christmases behind bars for his offence. Amazingly this worthy did not honour his parole.
And at this point, it seems, the Phoenix Park Factor (PPF), struck the forces of law and order yet again. The factor was apparently present when two of, the accused one who was positively identified by the survivor, the other who made statements of admission were freed because of improper procedures by arresting gardai. The PPF was again at work before Christmas when a dead body was allowed to rot in the park for over a week, though a garda had been informed of its location.
And it was at work again when gardai tracked down the truant McAllister but he persuaded Starsky and Hutch that his liberty was authorised and their left him to enjoy it.
Absconded Again
When they returned, this veteran of 6,7 convictions had, once again, absconded. Bless my soul, what a surprise. The PPF strikes again.
So what do we know? We know that four men attacked two Germans, killing one, and only one man is in custody. Makes you proud.
Still. Not all is lost. Maybe Bord Failte could start adventure holidays for Germans in Phoenix Park, employing the three remaining culprits from that August night as advisers, with maybe McDonagh helping out on parole. Police participation could be provided locally, by the gardai who went to rearrest Monsieur McAllister and by the smart lads from Blanchardstown.