Rape survivors' gratitude to McEntee for reforms

The sisters of a former priest who was convicted of their rape and jailed for eight years have paid tribute to former Justice Minister, Helen McEntee, for her implementation of the O'Malley report which made the court process easier for them.

Catherine Wrightstone and Paula Fay have called for further reforms following the conviction of their brother Richard Brennan (64) earlier this month and they have urged the DPP to appeal the leniency of his sentence.

Brennan, who is originally from Rathfarnham pleaded guilty during his trial to raping and indecently assaulting his sister Paula Fay when she was between 15 and 17 years old.

He also pleaded guilty to raping and indecently assaulting Catherine Wrightstone when she was between nine and 13 years old and he admitted indecently assaulting a third sister, Yvonne Crist, when she was 20 and he was 18.

He changed his plea to guilty after all three of the sisters had given evidence at the Central Criminal Court and two of them had been cross-examined. Their older brother, 67-year-old Bernard Brennan, was jailed last month for four and a half years for the sexual abuse of Ms Crist and Ms Fay.

Speaking on RTÉ's Oliver Callan programme, Ms Fay and Ms Wrightstone spoke of their gratitude to Minister McEntee "who commissioned the O'Malley report and because of those changes implemented in law, we were able to avail of the victim support room at court, the victim accompaniment to court. It also allowed our sister to give evidence video link from the us ."

They pointed out that these were only implemented in 2020 and were complimentary of the training given to the gardai,

They also expressed their gratitude to Lavinia Kerwick, the first Irish woman to waive her right to anonymity. "She's incredible and she has made significant changes."

The sisters called for reforms to how cases of historical sexual abuse are handled and for witnesses to get paid time off work to attend court, similar to jurors.

"I think Irish courts seem to have broad discretion over such cases as ours, and lenient sentences, especially in historical sexual abuse cases, are sometimes justified on the basis of remorse, time elapsed and, one of the things I find a little bit disturbing, is the offenders recent good character as stated in character references provided by family and friends who only know what that person allows them to know," Ms Wrightstone said.

"So, in terms of reform, I would love to see the introduction of mandatory, binding, sentencing guidelines that treat sexual abuse and rape as serious offences regardless of the time elapsed."