It’s a mark of a healthy, compassionate, and reasonable society that almost everybody who runs afoul of the law deserves, and is usually given, a second chance. There are very few of us who would feel it just for our whole lives to be judged and defined by our worst moment. Therefore, a justice system that is merciful – except in the most extreme cases – to people who commit their first criminal offence is generally to be applauded. Even the kindest and most decent person can have a bad moment, or drink too much, or find themselves in a moment of desperation and seeing no other way out.
But it is equally true that a society that is infinitely merciful to criminals will find itself on the wrong end of more crimes, both because the deterrent effect of the law is lowered, and because people who are genuinely a danger to society have been given one chance too many. Consider the case reported by Fatima yesterday of 31-year-old Daniel Maymay, who was sent to prison for five years (six, with the final year suspended) for the 2019 rape of a woman in County Donegal:
It was reported that Maymay has 17 previous convictions “including one for violent disorder and possession of drugs for sale or supply” and that his ‘permission to remain within the State expired in 2020 and has not been renewed,’
In 2013 Maymar pleaded guilty to involvement in an assault on two separate groups of men which left one of the victims in need of €10,000 worth of dental work where one man was knocked unconscious while another man suffered a broken arm.
Donegal Live reported that Maymay was part of a group of four men which launched attacks on the other groups after those involved had exited the Arena 7 in Letterkenny on the 30th of August 2013.
The matter of Maymay’s immigration status does not arise directly here, since the rape was committed in 2019 when he was still legally resident in the country, and it is likely that – although his immigration status expired in 2020 – he was commanded to remain in the country to face charges, rightly and properly.
What does arise, however, is the matter of the assailant having been in possession of 17 previous convictions, including for a serious assault, and having been, nevertheless, at liberty.
His immigration status also arises indirectly: If somebody wins a visa to come to your country and is arrested, charged, and convicted not once, not twice, but seventeen times of crimes against the country, one might fairly ask why – even if the offences did not warrant jail time – why they did not warrant the cancellation of the offender’s visa, and his deportation.
That said, it would be foolish and wrong to think that the problems in the Irish justice system apply only to immigrants. Regular readers might remember the horrific case in Dublin last year of the teenage girl who was gang-raped by three assailants on a beach in the capital, and the fact that two of her three attackers had more previous convictions between them than the average person has had – quite literally – steak dinners:
Scenes erupted in the Central Criminal Court in Dublin on Friday after Mr Justice David Keane imposed sentences of nine years, nine and a half years and 10 years on Dion Genockey (24), Troy Ryan (24) and Daryl Rooney (25) respectively.
Sentencing Rooney to 10 years, Mr Justice Keane took into account a number of aggravating factors, including the fact he has 225 previous convictions for violent disorder, drugs, public order offences, trespass, theft and road traffic matters.
Sentencing Ryan to nine-and-a-half years, Mr Justice Keane noted he has 24 previous offences, including theft and drugs.
The three rapists in that case were, of course, home-grown Irish citizens, and quite equal beneficiaries of the judicial leniency that was shown to Mr. Maymay. The Irish legal system is equally generous, it seems, to both migrant and home-grown crooks.
All of this is a function of three issues:
First, a chronic lack of prison places. Second, a judicial culture which has turned mercy into a vice. And third, a political culture which appears to believe that criminals, rather than wronging society, have in fact been wronged by society, and need a hug rather than a punishment. All three of those problems are ultimately a result of political choices.
Political choices, in the case of the Donegal case, that left a man free who should not have been at liberty in this country, or any other.