COMPENSATION IN LIEU OF CUSTODIAL SENTENCING IS INAPPROPRIATE AND WILL BE ENDED - KENNY

Posted on February 12, 2014 12:08 PM   |   Permanent Link   

Labour TD and member of the Oireachtas Justice Committee, Sean Kenny has said that the judicial practise of compensation in lieu of custodial sentencing in serious cases is inappropriate and that the practise is to be ended.

"I have been disturbed in recent times at the apparently increasing number of cases where those convicted of sexual offences have been able to walk free from prison because they have been in a position to provide financial compensation. I have been contacted by many women around the country, who are deeply worried at the apparent ease at which men in particular, who are convicted of sexual offences, are able to walk free from prison on the basis they have the financial means to do so, and can use their financial means to pay compensation to their victims."

"Women feel afraid when they see cases involving sexual crimes ending this way - they feel diminished as equal citizens, because they see that men found guilty of assaulting other women are able to walk out of a court presided over, usually by a male judge, because money plays a part, regardless of what a female victim feels. They feel that women they are not being listened to, and they question whether justice has been done in the case concerned, or would be done if they were a victim. I believe that this practise is particularly inappropriate and it is right that it is being ended. The requirement to impose an appropriate penalty for the crime should not be confused with the court's power to separately award compensation to the victim for personal injury or loss."

"In a Parliamentary Question to the Minister for Justice, I asked for his views on the compensation of victims in lieu of prison sentences for those convicted of sexual offences. In his reply he told me that from time to time, issues can arise with sentences imposed in cases where financial compensation offered to the victim by the offender is regarded as a mitigating factor by the court when sentencing the offender."

"I was very happy to hear that drafting of the Criminal Justice (Community Sanctions) Bill is now underway. An element of this Bill will be to break the link between the payment of compensation and the sentencing of offenders in criminal proceedings, and it will amend Section 6 of the Criminal Justice Act 1993 to disconnect the payment of compensation from the sentencing of the offender. The amendment will provide that a compensation order can only be made in addition to any other sanction, and not instead of a sanction. I am happy that the practise of compensation in lieu of custodial sentencing is to be ended - not merely in terms of an instruction to the judiciary, but as a matter of law."