The sisters of a man who sexually abused them have called for reform of the legal system over leave for witnesses in trials.
At the Central Criminal Court earlier this month Richard Brennan was given a sentence of eight years for offences against his three sisters in the 1970s and 1980s in Dublin.
Brennan, with an address in Montana in the US, admitted days into his trial last March to 24 offences against Yvonne Crist, Paula Fay and Catherine Wrightstone.
Now Ms Fay and Ms Wrightstone have called for witnesses to be given paid leave, the same as jurors, in trials.
RM Block
Speaking on RTÉ Radio 1’s Oliver Callan show, Ms Fay said when she told her employer she was going to be a witness in a trial and that it could take three weeks she was told all she was entitled to was annual leave or unpaid leave.
“There was nothing in law to protect me as a witness,” she said.
“I was completely committed to this process from the very beginning, and I feel that we need to be treated differently.”
Ms Fay said witnesses, like jurors, were also doing their civic duty and as such should be treated the same as them.
The abuse was committed by Brennan in the family home in Rathfarnham when he was aged between 16 and 24 and included four offences of rape against Ms Fay and two of rape against Ms Wrightstone when both women were minors.
Following the trial the sisters voiced their “deep disappointment” over the “leniency” of his eight-year sentence.
Speaking on the show, Ms Wrightstone said: “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.
“In terms of reform, I would love to see an introduction of mandatory binding sentencing guidelines that treat sexual abuse and rape as serious offences regardless of the time elapsed and create a statutory offence under sexual assault for sibling sexual abuse.”
During sentencing, Mr Justice David Keane said among the mitigatory factors were Brennan’s “very late” plea of guilty, his apology to his sisters, his expression of remorse, his lack of previous convictions, that the offences occurred 40 years ago and that he was considered at low risk of reoffending.
Ms Wrightstone told the radio show that “one of the things that I find a little bit disturbing is the offender’s recent good character as stated in character references provided by family and friends, who only know what that person allows them to know”.
She said she and her sisters were trying to “give voice” for those who could not come forward.
“We understand that it’s a really challenging thing to do. We want to provide hope, that our legal system will help and that the gardaí will help and that hopefully other changes will happen,” she said.
“But we do recognise that there have been some that have lost their life under the weight of trauma, so we’re here to give voice to those and we thank all of those brave women that came before us.”
